2008 Woodie Awards
Prof. Matt Semel recieves exclusive fellowship to study terrorism and tour Israel
Shannon Ianni
Issue date: 4/17/08 Section: News
Click on the news or flip through any newspaper sold on the stands. One thing you will be sure to find is some kind of article or story regarding the threat of terrorism.
It looms over our heads on a daily basis and it also serves as a key area of interest for Sacred Heart University Criminal Justice professor, Matthew D. Semel.
Semel was recently accepted to the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies Academic Fellows Program, a prominent fellowship that will allow him to tour Israel and confer with some of the nation's top terrorism experts.
"Terrorism, along with criminal law and capital punishment, is one of my areas of interest and I am currently working on a research project about military intelligence techniques," said Semel. "Interrogations have come under great scrutiny as a result of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and we now know that the CIA and some in the military tortured prisoners in their custody."
According to the Sacred Heart University Web site, the FDD was founded after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks to support the defense of democracies through policy research, democracy and counterterrorism training, strategic communications and investigative journalism,
A graduate of Colgate University, Semel earned a masters degree in journalism from Northwestern University and a law degree from New York Law School. Currently, he is working to complete his Ph.D. in Criminal Justice at John Jay College of Criminal Justice.
Semel spent 13 years working for the Criminal Defense Division of the Legal Aid Society in the Bronx. As a defender, he worked with people charged with crimes that ranged from disorderly conduct to murder. During his legal career he has also worked with people that had been sentenced to death.
"I believe that torture does not produce accurate and actionable intelligence and my study is focused on the techniques authorized by the military in its Interrogation Handbook," said Semel.
It looms over our heads on a daily basis and it also serves as a key area of interest for Sacred Heart University Criminal Justice professor, Matthew D. Semel.
Semel was recently accepted to the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies Academic Fellows Program, a prominent fellowship that will allow him to tour Israel and confer with some of the nation's top terrorism experts.
"Terrorism, along with criminal law and capital punishment, is one of my areas of interest and I am currently working on a research project about military intelligence techniques," said Semel. "Interrogations have come under great scrutiny as a result of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and we now know that the CIA and some in the military tortured prisoners in their custody."
According to the Sacred Heart University Web site, the FDD was founded after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks to support the defense of democracies through policy research, democracy and counterterrorism training, strategic communications and investigative journalism,
A graduate of Colgate University, Semel earned a masters degree in journalism from Northwestern University and a law degree from New York Law School. Currently, he is working to complete his Ph.D. in Criminal Justice at John Jay College of Criminal Justice.
Semel spent 13 years working for the Criminal Defense Division of the Legal Aid Society in the Bronx. As a defender, he worked with people charged with crimes that ranged from disorderly conduct to murder. During his legal career he has also worked with people that had been sentenced to death.
"I believe that torture does not produce accurate and actionable intelligence and my study is focused on the techniques authorized by the military in its Interrogation Handbook," said Semel.
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