Future Conferences
Interrogation and Torture Controversy: Crisis in Psychology
September 12th, 2008
Time: 9am – 4.30pm (check-in begins at 8.30am)
Location: John Jay College of Criminal Justice
Gerald W. Lynch Theater, 899 Tenth Avenue
Conference Program available here. For more information on the topic, refer to the following articles: "Psychologists Clash on Aiding Interrogations" and "Inside a 9/11 Mastermind’s Interrogation".
The Interrogation and Torture Controversy: Crisis in Psychology is an all-day conference that is free and open to the public. It is co-sponsored by the Center on Terrorism at John Jay College, CUNY; York College, CUNY; Five Divisions of the New York State Psychological Association: Social Issues, Independent Practice, Women’s Issues, Psychoanalysis, and Forensic; and the New York and New Jersey Chapters, Association of Black Psychologists. Each day brings more evidence of abusive treatment of detainees deeply troubling in a democracy. This conference will focus on the historical and ethical dimensions of this crisis, and an important development within it – the participation of psychologists in detainee interrogations. The American Psychological Association remains the only major professional organization to support involvement of its professionals in detainee interrogations.
Representing a range of views, a distinguished group of experts will confer with participants on questions rarely addressed in public forums. For example, what should happen when the priorities of the military chain of command conflict with the practice standards of a profession? And what is ethical psychological research and consultation on topics important to national security?
Presenters include:
Stephen Behnke, American Psychological Assoc.
Ghislaine Boulanger, NYU
Mark A. Costanzo, Claremont McKenna College
David DeBatto, ret. US Army Counterintelligence
Mark Denbeaux, Seton Hall U. School of Law
Katherine Eban, Investigative Reporter
Michael Gelles, ret. US Navy Counterintelligence
Lesley Gill, Vanderbilt University
Michael Flynn, York College, CUNY
Allen Keller, NYU/Bellevue
Thomas Kucharski, John Jay College, CUNY
Marianne Jackson, NYSPA Social Issues Div.
Matthew B. Johnson, John Jay College, CUNY
Tony Lagouranis, former US Army Interrogator
Bernice Lott, University of Rhode Island
Alfred W. McCoy, U. of Wisconsin-Madison
Brad Olson, Northwestern University
Steven Reisner, Columbia University
Leonard Rubenstein, Physicians for Human Rights
Hawthorne Smith, NYU/Bellevue
Charles B. Strozier, John Jay Center on Terrorism
Frank Summers, Northwestern Medical School
Documentary Premier!
Interrogation Psychologists: The Making of a Professional Crisis Directed by Martha Davis
Additional Support:
Forensic Psychology Associates
CE Credits: 6.5 credits (including 3 ethics credits) will be available to Psychologists for a fee of $20.00 (checks or cash only), payable to: Forensic Psychology Associates on the day of the workshop only. You are required to attend the entire workshop and complete and submit an evaluation form at the conclusion of the workshop. Forensic Psychology Associates is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. Forensic Psychology Associates maintains responsibility or the program and its contents.
Co-Sponsored by York College CUNY; Six Divisions of the New York State Psychological
Association: Social Issues, Idependent Practice, Women's Issues, Psychoanalysis,
Academic Psychology and Forensic; NY and NJ Chapters, Association of Black
Psychologists; Psychology Department of John Jay College of Criminal Justice;
Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues
The Future of Nuclear Weapons: Abolition in the Post-Bush Era
January 16, 2009
John Jay College of Criminal Justice
Time and Location: TBA
On January 16, 2009, the Center on Terrorism will host a conference on "The Future of Nuclear Weapons: Abolition in the Post-Bush Era." Three of the most important voices in the antinuclear movement during the course of the last half century--Robert Jay Lifton, Richard Falk, and Jonathan Schell--will lead the discussion on the future of nuclear weapons at this day-long event. Participants by invitation will include the 18 "Lifton Fellows" who have been appointed since 2000. The Lifton Fellows are younger scholars in many fields who have received stipends to develop new courses on aspects of nuclear threat. The specific goal of the Lifton Fellowship program has been to foster awareness and activism about nuclear weapons among the next generation of young Americans. This conference is a continuation of that conversation and an attempt to formulate strategies for moving toward the abolition of nuclear weapons in the post-Bush era.
The conference and the Lifton Fellows program are funded by the Jennifer Simons Foundation.
Surveillance Societies: What Price Security?
Conference hosted by Macaulay Honors College of CUNY
35 W. 67th Street, NYC, NY 10023
April 24-26, 2009
For more information, click here
Past Conferences
Global Security: Terrorism, Organized Crime, Civil Society
May 8, 2002
John Jay College of Criminal Justice
Haaren Hall, 899 Tenth Avenue
“Global Security: Terrorism, Organized Crime, Civil Society” was an all-day conference co-hosted by the U.S. Department of State and the John Jay College Center on Terrorism. We were honored to welcome 28 professionals from 20 countries who attended the conference as participants in two key Department of State programs, “Combating International Crime” and “International Security Issues,” along with students and faculty of John Jay College.
The goal of the conference was to bring together these international guests to interact with local professionals, researchers, academics, and graduate students in an environment that encourages critical thinking, openness, and reflection on issues related to terrorism and organized crime.
The conference addressed six key components of terrorism: the environmental conditions which produce terrorists; the goals and tactics of terrorist organizations; bilateral and multilateral counter-terrorist responses; the relationship between organized criminal activity and terrorist organizations; and the broader human rights implications of terrorist and counter-terrorist activity. Presenters included: Scott Atran, Presidential Scholar, John Jay College; Francesca Laguardia, Center on Law and Security, NYU School of Law; James Borgardt, Professor of Physics, Juniata College; George Andreopoulos, Professor of Government and Director, Center for International Human Rights, John Jay College; Bill Priestap, Special Agent of the Counterterrorism Intelligence Squad, FBI, NYPD Joint Terrorism Task Force, and Maki Haberfeld, Professor of Police Science in the Department of Law, Police Science and Criminal Justice Administration, John Jay College.
Shield New York Against Nuclear and Bio-Terrorism: A Call to Action
September 29 & 30, 2005
John Jay College of Criminal Justice
Gerald W. Lynch Theater, 899 Tenth Avenue
This major educational conference was held to examine the possibility of practical methods to prevent a nuclear and/or bio-terrorism attack on New York City to supplement meaningful efforts by the NYPD, the Port Authority, the TSA, and on the part of some scholars. The conference focused on meaningful discussions that included systematically addressing the international problems of loose nukes and untended stockpiles of plutonium and enriched uranium in the former Soviet Union; the inequitable and absurd allocation of counter-terrorism resources in the federal budget based on political considerations that in the end short-change the country’s primary target; and the complex local issues of effective protection of the ports, the subways and transportation network, and the airports. Sessions covered topics such as: What can corporations do? What is the role of the media? How vulnerable is the transportation infrastructure? How can we stop proliferation? How great is the threat of bio-terrorism? How can we prevent a nuclear terrorist attack?
Featured Speakers: Graham Allison, Harvard University; Jeremy Travis, President, John Jay College; Charles Strozier(Chair) Director, Center on Terrorism, John Jay College; Jonathan Schell, The Nation Institute; Stephen Flynn, Council on Foreign Relations; Joseph Cirincione, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace; Kathryn Wylde, Partnership for New York City, Bob Hormats, Goldman Sachs; James McDonnellPresident, McDonnell Consulting Group, LLC; Bill Blakemore, ABC News; Chris Hedges, New York Times; John R. MacArthur, Harper’s Magazine; Michael Flynn, Associate Director, Center on Terrorism, John Jay College; Psychology Department, York College; Peter Clarke, Deputy Assistant Commissioner, London Metropolitan Police, Anti-Terrorism Branch; Robert (Buz) Paaswell, City University of New York; Governor Thomas Kean, Chair, 9/11 Commission, Marcia V. Keizs, President, York College; Sharon K. Weiner, School of International Service, American University; James T. Walsh, Harvard University; Laura H. Kahn, Princeton University; Irwin Redlener, Columbia University; Scott Atran, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique and the University of Michigan; Harlan Kenneth, Senior Advisor, Center for Strategic & International Studies; and Charles Ferguson, Council on Foreign Relations.
“The Second Nuclear Age: Nuclear Weapons▪The New Terrorism▪The Culture of Fear
December 3, 2004
CUNY Graduate Center, NYC
This conference examined how nuclear weapons and the massive collective fear of their use by states or terrorists have shaped consciousness and conflicts throughout the world for more than fifty years. Presenters included scholars, researchers, and experts on nuclear weapons technology, nuclear weapons proliferation, how nuclear weapons impact the environment, Islam and nuclear weapons, and forms of resistance and the anti-nuclear weapons movement. Sessions were conducted on the latest in new nuclear weapons, nuclear weapons and the war system, and resistance and survival in the second nuclear age.
Featured Speakers : Richard Falk, Princeton University; Jonathan Schell, The Nation Institute; Charles B. Strozier, Director, Center on Terrorism; Michael Flynn, York College and Associate Director, Center on Terrorism; Arjun Makhijani, Institute for Energy and Environmental Research; Ervand Abrahamian, Baruch College; Sohail Hashmi, Mount Holyoke College, David Krieger, Nuclear Age Peace Foundation; George Andreopoulos, John Jay College; Robert Jay Lifton; Harvard Medical School, Kai Erikson, Yale University; Peter Kuznick, American University and Zia Mian, Princeton University; among many others.
The Second Nuclear Age Conference was co-sponsored by: The Center on Terrorism, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY Graduate Center, Continuing Education York College.
Al-Qaeda: The New Face of Global Terrorism
May 4-5, 2004
CUNY Graduate Center, NYC
"Al-Qaeda", was a unique conference that addressed all aspects of this extraordinarily complex and feared organization. Panelists included leading scholars of terrorism and the Middle East, journalists with first-hand knowledge of Al-Qaeda, and intelligence officers and others who work in counter-terrorism. One plenary panel featured a discussion of the "Myths and Realities"; of Al-Qaeda in an attempt to balance the real threats it poses with the mysteries it presents and the climate of fear it generates. A second plenary panel will discuss concrete ways of countering the terrorism of Al-Qaeda violence in the Middle East and in the United States, especially in New York. Sessions were conducted on "Osama bin Laden," “Recruitment, Funding and Global Reach of Al-Qaeda," and "Media: Reporting on Al-Qaeda."
Featured Speakers: Richard Falk, Princeton University; Youssef Ibrahim, Strategic Energy Investment Group; Robert Baer, Former CIA Case Officer and author of Sleeping with the Devil: How Washington Sold Our Soul for Saudi Crude; Bruce Hoffman, RAND Corporation; Lawrence Wright, The New Yorker; Quintan Wiktorowicz, Rhodes College; Mohammed El-Nawawy, Georgia State College; Charles B. Strozier, Director, Center on Terrorism; Michael Flynn, York College and Associate Director, Center on Terrorism;Chris Hedges, NY Times; Loretta Napoleoni, author of Modern Jihad: Tracing Dollars Behind Terror Networks; Richard Kearney, Boston College; and Steve Rendall, Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, among others.
This groundbreaking conference, the first of its kind, was held to contribute to our deeper understanding of a group that considers itself at war with the United States and West.
The conference was co-sponsored by: The Center on Terrorism, John Jay College; Continuing Education & Public Programs, Graduate Center; York College, CUNY; and Scientific Investigative Technologies Group (SITG).
Torture After 9/11: The Legal and Ethical Implications of Torture in the New Age of Terrorism
October 24, 2003
Graduate Center, CUN
At the same time the Center on Terrorism held this Conference to examine the extent human rights were being eroded as a result of 9/11, on the other side of the globe Iraqi prisoners were being tortured by U.S. forces at Abu Ghraib. The conference examined the ethical, political, and legal issues of torture in a historical context in light of the new technologies. Spirited discussions at the plenary sessions addressed issues of torture in Israel and issues surrounding policing and coercive interrogation.
This international symposium presented a balanced view of the issues surrounding torture bringing together scholars from various disciplines, including law and ethics; and those with direct experience of torture; and practitioners from intelligence, law enforcement, and other areas who deal with the real world of counter-terrorism, to consider the new meanings of torture in an age of terrorism and apocalyptic violence.
Featured Speakers: Kenneth Roth, Executive Director, Human Rights Watch; Sister Dianna Ortiz, an Ursuline nun who was tortured in Guatemala in 1989, by Guatemalan forces, Executive Director, Torture Abolition and Survivors Support Coalition; Alan Dershowitz of Harvard Law School; Lawrence Weschler, Director, Institute for the Humanities, New York University; Michael S. Moore, College of Law, University of Illinois; Richard Posner, Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh District and former Lee and Brenna Freeman Professor of Law at the University of Chicago; Joshua Rubinstein, Amnesty International; Allen Keller, Director, Bellevue/NYU Medical Center for Survivors of Torture; Elaine Scarry, Harvard University; Edward Peters, University of Pennsylvania; and Jennifer Harbury, Central American activist and author.
Homeland Security After 9/11: Urban Hazards Forum II
Information on our Friday Seminar Series
