The National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START) is now hiring a Junior Researcher to work on the Global Terrorism Database (GTD) at START’s headquarters at the University of Maryland, College Park. This is a full-time position, with an initial term of 12 months (starting in January 2014).
Responsibilities:
The GTD consists of unclassified data on over 100,000 terrorist attacks that have occurred worldwide since 1970. It supports a wide range of users, including government, academia, media, and the general public. GTD Research Assistants are responsible for performing a variety of tasks meant to assist in the ongoing collection and coding of terrorism event data. These tasks include:
- Establishing expertise on data collection and coding practices for a specific domain of the GTD
- Managing a team of interns tasked with data coding for a specific domain of the GTD
- Training new team members and interns on coding practices for a specific domain of the GTD
- Routine quality control assessments of coded data for a specific domain of the GTD
- Identification of terrorism events in source documents and writing incident summaries
Required Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree in discipline related to terrorism and political violence
- 1+ years systematic data collection and/or coding experience
- Training in statistics and research methods
- Proficiency with MS Excel, including the use of pivot tables, formulas, and data sorting/filtering
- Ability to manage tasks and meet strict deadlines
- Ability to analyze a large number of source documents in a fast-paced environment
Preferred Qualifications
- Master’s degree in discipline related to terrorism and political violence
- 1+ years project/team management experience
- Research experience related to terrorism and political violence
- Experience with statistical software, such as SAS, Stata, SPSS, or R
- Advanced knowledge of coding practices for the GTD or similar database(s)
The annual salary for this position will be in the range of $40,000-$45,000 (depending on education and experience), plus full University of Maryland benefits (as explained at http://ter.ps/2by). The person selected for this position will work on site at START’s headquarters at the University of Maryland, College Park, and will report to the GTD Program Manager.
Qualified applicants should submit a cover letter, resumé, and one page writing sample via email (with subject line “GTD Faculty Research Assistant”) to gtd@start.umd.edu. Applicants should also provide contact information for three professional references.
Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis until the position is filled. Candidates are encouraged to apply by December 1, 2013 for best consideration.
Women and minorities are encouraged to apply. The University of Maryland is an equal opportunity, affirmative action employer.