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With last week’s attacks in Paris and jury selection underway for the trial of suspected Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, terrorism has been in the national and international news – and so have Boston College faculty experts.
Four University faculty members in particular have been sought by world, national, and regional media entities – with help from the Office of News & Public Affairs (NPA) – for their insights and analysis on issues related to the Paris attacks and Tsarnaev trial.
Beginning Friday night and throughout the weekend, Associate Professor of Political Science Jonathan Laurence was a constant presence on CNN, who turned to him nearly a dozen times for comments on the attacks in Paris. Laurence spoke to some media from Chestnut Hill on Jan. 7 in the moments after 12 people were killed in the offices of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, but when he landed in Paris Friday morning, NPA Associate Director Sean Hennessey alerted some of the television news networks, pitching Laurence’s expertise with the Muslim world in Europe, noting that he had written a book on the topic, and that he was on the ground in Paris. Laurence was immediately asked to be a guest on both MSNBC and CNN Friday night.
“It was certainly an honor to have been asked to help explain the week’s shocking events to an audience – a rare chance to bring forth the political science research that I do and apply it to the real world,” says Laurence, who admits he was a bit nervous at the prospect of talking to such large audiences. “Despite the extremely troubling and frightening nature of the events, it was appropriate timing for someone with my research interests to arrive in Paris. It was humbling to be asked by two of the main cable news networks to offer my views and insight I’ve gleaned over my years of work here.”
Laurence had scheduled his trip a few weeks ago. He was there to work on a book, take part in a dissertation committee and give a talk. While his arrival in Paris was fortuitous given the timing of events there, the quality of his insights and analysis had CNN coming back for more. The network noted Laurence’s Boston College affiliation to a worldwide audience almost a dozen times in segments over the weekend; he had another CNN guest appearance Tuesday night.
“That was really nice: Boston College deserves that level of recognition – it’s an excellent research university,” says Laurence. “Strangely, you’re quite cut off from the rest of the world when you’re there with an anchor and the camera. It’s a surprisingly intimate setting and it’s easy to forget how many people are on the other side of the camera in terms of audience numbers.
“It focuses the mind to know you have a very short window to formulate what are rather complex facts and ideas into a phrase or two that will add something to the discussion, and not just be more bloviating. So that’s the challenge: not just add to the chatter but actually provide something substantive that people wouldn’t be learning from a journalist or news analyst, but rather the kind of empirical, deep-dive research that we do.”
In the wake of the Paris attacks, Assistant Professor of Political Science Peter Krause – a noted terrorism expert – went on New England Cable News to discuss the implications for America’s attempts to wage war against ISIS. Krause has been a regular guest on NECN, partly because of his efforts and also through frequent pitches by NPA. His appearance on “Broadside with Jim Braude” was the result of NPA’s Hennessey recently connecting him with the show’s producer.
“I think we as professors have a responsibility to share any valuable insights we have with the public. It is a great privilege to be able to spend one’s life studying a few issues and subjects in great depth,” says Krause. “As challenging as it can be to fit years of study into media-ready sound bites, I recognize that most people don’t have more than a few minutes to read or watch a story on protests in Syria or the attacks in Paris. The opportunity to speak publicly on these issues forces me to be more articulate and to the point, and it sometimes makes me realize that I don’t know an issue as well as I should.
“Teaching helps in the same way. To be able to explain an event or its implications clearly and concisely to students and the general public requires that you yourself have a clear understanding of the issue. As opposed to pundits who often offer shallow opinions based on little to no evidence, I see my role as helping the public to think through an issue more deeply and improve their understanding of it so they can make more sophisticated, informed decisions, whatever they may be.”
With the Tsarnaev trial looming, the international news service Reuters sought the expertise of Law Professor Robert Bloom, who weighed in on the early proceedings and issues of the case. NPA regularly contacts media entities with Bloom’s expertise on significant legal cases, an effort that was a factor with Reuters, and with WGBH-FM’s “Morning Edition,” which has invited Bloom several times to discuss the Tsarnaev trial.
“When people ask me what I do, I say I’m a teacher, and part of my teaching is not just directly to my students,” says Bloom, who also spoke to WCVB-TV and CCTV-America about the trial. “Since I have some expertise in the areas of public importance, I feel my knowledge should be shared with the public at large. Because of pressing teaching and writing obligations, I often don’t have the time to contact the media nor would I know how to do it. I’m thankful that the Office of News & Public Affairs prods me to perform this function, and helps get my perspectives out to a mainstream audience.”
As jury selection began, NPA sent local and national media the comments of Assistant Communication Professor Matt Sienkiewicz, who specializes in global media cultures. This Tuesday, he was quoted multiple times in The New York Times, which ran a story on how the terrorist attacks in Paris might influence the terrorist trial in Boston, given the similarities of the two attacks: the manhunts, the pair of brothers viewed as homegrown Islamic terrorists, and their terrifying acts of violence.
“Certainly it is a privilege to reach an international audience and discuss something of such importance,” says Sienkiewicz.
“There is, however, a sense of sadness to it as well. Part of my qualification for speaking on questions of culture and terrorism derives from my having been in Boston during the marathon bombing and observing the media reaction. These are not, of course, happy memories. My aim is to provide some context to help bridge Boston’s experiences of terrorism with those of other places across the world. Last week’s attacks in Paris truly, and tragically, underscored the importance of seeing our personal and communal lives as part of a complex, global cultural space.”
Laurence – who’s still in Paris, catching up on the fieldwork he had intended to accomplish there – says he relishes the opportunity to share his insight and expertise with a national media entity while helping get the Boston College name out to a worldwide audience.
“Scholars usually labor in some obscurity because of the time it takes to conduct fieldwork and read and think about everything that one’s taking in,” says Laurence. “Converting that into sound bites is not easy, but it’s a useful challenge – and it’s important because we should be communicating our work to a broader audience.”
"The work of our faculty in providing expertise on the most important issues of the day reflects positively on Boston College and helps shape the national and international discourse in a meaningful way," said News & Public Affairs Director Jack Dunn. "We are always willing to work with faculty to prepare them for media interviews and to promote their expertise within print and broadcast media. Interested faculty should contact us in the Office of News & Public Affairs at 2-3350."