The groups, dealing with displaced peoples; European identities; and national security, terrorism, and counter-terrorism, are drawing on faculty from various departments, colleges, and programs of the University to share their perspectives on important topics, according to the institute’s newsletter, Global Connections.

“The reason we developed the groups was to draw on and engage faculty across disciplinary and departmental lines to find common interests,” said Gordon B. Smith, a professor of political science and director of the Walker Institute.

“By bringing these faculty members together, we are finding that they have a lot of research issues in common, but that they also come at those issues from different perspectives and that this enriches their own research,” Smith said.

The Displaced Peoples Group is focused on the multifaceted problems of people displaced by international and civil conflict. Its interests range from cases of ethnic cleansing in Bosnia to regional conflicts in northern Uganda and the Darfur region of Sudan.

The European Identities Group includes 14 faculty members from five departments focusing on the multiplicity of identities in Europe, with special emphasis on Muslims in Europe, European Union expansion and the regional ethnic, religious, and national complexities of the “New Europe.”

In the National Security, Terrorism, and Counter-Terrorism Group, scholars meet on a monthly basis to share their research on the social and behavioral dimensions of terrorism and counter-terrorism. Group members represent a variety of disciplines and research themes, including the impact of terrorism on international trade patterns, terrorism and state-building in Bosnia-Herzegovina, terrorism and tourism, geographical aspects of terrorist events, best practices in school safety and responding to terrorist threats, and the mass media and public perception of terrorism.

The groups, which Smith organized last year as one of the initiatives he undertook when he became director of the Walker Institute, are open to additional faculty members interested in joining. The groups might have value in and of themselves, Smith said, but he added that they have many other potential outcomes, including external grants, conferences, and publications.

One current spin-off of The Displaced Peoples Group is a pending proposal with the National Science Foundation to fund a $2.5 million project that would draw on African specialists and geographic information system experts in geography to deal with people displaced by civil war in Uganda, Smith said.
An early initiative of the European Identities Group was a revamping of the undergraduate curriculum for majors in European Studies, “and we’re hoping to mount a film festival sometime this academic year looking at the question of the role of Muslims in Europe,” Smith said.

“With the recent bombings in England, the issues of people— even second-generation Europeans who come from different cultures not fully integrated into European society—are very real today. That theme plays through the whole genre of films that have come out of Europe for the past 20 years,” Smith said.

Smith said other research groups could be started if faculty members identify interest areas.

“The reason we started the groups was that we had a cluster of faculty with related interests that I knew about,” said Smith. “But that isn’t to say there aren’t other possible research foci with an international dimension that could be organized through the auspices of the Walker Institute.

For information or to join a group, contact Smith at 7-8180 or smithg@sc.edu.

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