NCITE-led course on political violence is ‘especially important today’

By Eva Burklund
NCITE student worker

Looking through the glass wall of the classroom, anyone passing by could occasionally catch grim words projected high on a screen.

Brawls. Violent rituals. Trends in collective violence.

Throughout the spring 2023 semester, Michelle Black, Ph.D., NCITE’s director of security innovation programming and associate professor of political science at UNO, taught students about violence and the forces behind it. Her course, “Political Violence, Insurgency, and Terrorism,” covered how actions can change from nonviolent to violent and the elements that affect violence, from individual behavior to systematic forces that affect large populations.

“I usually teach this class from an international perspective ... meaning I focus on conflict overseas or in my area specialty,” Black said. “However, our discussions during this class focused on many of the violent interactions within the United States, which is a new discussion point for me, but one that I feel is important. It is due to this discussion, almost (a) reflection of what is happening here rather than overseas, that I find this course especially important today and in the near future.”

In the class, held just across the hall from NCITE offices in UNO’s Maverick Landing, students from across disciplines discussed the causes, impacts, and types of violence. Several NCITE staff and faculty also delivered guest lectures on their areas of expertise.

“I feel like this class has really shifted my thinking,” said Ryan Vilter, a political science undergraduate and NCITE student worker. “There's so many revolving pieces in terrorism and political violence. I think I kind of had an idea of that before stepping into Dr. Black’s class, but now, I’m much more informed.”

The class takes an interdisciplinary approach to understanding political violence, drawing from political science, international studies, psychology, communications, and more. While the class was listed as a political science and international studies course, students from a wide variety of programs, including German, communication studies, criminology, and multidisciplinary studies, also took the class.

“I’m used to looking at pretty much just terrorism and just from a criminal justice perspective,” said Isaac Moelter, a criminology graduate student in Black’s class and graduate assistant with NCITE. “So, getting the political science perspective ... seeing different kinds of political violence and how those are viewed not just from a criminal justice lens but from security ones and political ones is very helpful for me.”

The class focused on building critical thinking and analysis skills, with many assignments focused on critiquing textbook readings using examples and evidence to support claims. One of the textbooks students critiqued throughout the semester was focused on categorizing types of collective violence and explaining why violence occurs.

“Before this class, I really hadn’t considered kind of the boundaries of violence, and I hadn’t really considered just how many issues of definition there were within the field of contentious politics,” said Lauren Moss, a political science graduate student and graduate assistant with NCITE. “So, I think that’s really opened up my mind, and it’s kind of helped me conceptualize the way in which I can put what I’m learning into practice and see how I can apply the things I’m learning.”

As the semester nears its end, the hope, Black said, is that by better understanding the causes and functions of violence, students are more equipped to help prevent violence in the future.

“With NCITE, I have been building academic programs for the counterterrorism professional, and this course directly links to building expertise in that field,” she said. “Understanding the causes, forms, and consequences of political violence and terrorism helps professionals understand and counter violent activities. My hope is that more courses can be offered to build expertise.”