Occasionally a new faculty member arrives on The Hill and in no time at all it seems like he or she has been here forever. Perhaps it was the fact that he earned the honor of Distinguished Military Graduate on his diploma from Northern Illinois University. Or maybe it was due to his four years as an active duty infantry officer with the 10th Mountain Division in upstate New York. But whatever the reason, it didn’t take Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice Travis Morris long to get his feet underneath him at Norwich. In fewer than three years he has made a big splash: Last April, the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, a non-partisan policy institute headquartered in Washington, D.C., named him an Academic Fellow for 2013–14, and this past fall he was awarded the Board of Fellows (BoF) Faculty Development Prize, a prestigious honor that includes an $8,000 honorarium. Morris’ career path from night beat police officer to lecturer at the International Symposium on Terrorism and Transnational Crime at the Turkish National Police Academy in Antalya, Turkey, seems a bit incredible at first glance. But there were signs early on. As a child, young Travis sat around the dinner table, enthralled by the Israeli fighter pilots who came to visit his parents’ home. Later, while working the graveyard shift for the Lexington, Ky. police department, he would listen to audio recordings on the History of the Middle East between making drunk driver arrests. At some point along the way, the notion of becoming an academic started to take hold, and he 4
enrolled for a Master of Science in Criminal Justice at Eastern Kentucky University (EKU), while still keeping his night job. Although his studies at EKU focused on the Israeli National Police, it was while taking a course in criminological theory that Morris found himself “fascinated by scholarly work that attempted to explain crime.” The professor who taught the course challenged his students to view the world of crime through a different lens. According to Morris, “[The professor] changed the direction of my career.” Hooked on academia, he pursued a doctoral program at the University of Nebraska/Omaha, where he became a Presidential Fellow focusing on terrorism propaganda in the context of culture and history. Already known as an expert on justice in the Middle East, Morris will use the BoF Faculty Development Prize to continue his research into violent jihadism and neo-Naziism propaganda “using novel approaches of examining the language through network text analysis.” According to Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs Dr. Guiyou Huang, the Faculty Development Prize offers a powerful incentive for faculty to conduct scholarly work in their field, but like a lot of top prizes, its impact extends far beyond the actual award. “Not only does the Prize reward one person or team, but it motivates many others to strive and reach for the top,” Huang said. Morris’ original research proposal was peer reviewed and revised—and narrowed—before being submitted and winning the BoF Faculty Development Prize. Since receiving the award, the research has been done, the paper written and reviewed internally, and submitted to The Journal of Behavioral Sciences of Terrorism and Political Aggression. Currently, the manuscript is undergoing further revision before resubmission.
Morris pursues scholarly research to expand the base of knowledge and make an impact. In 2011, as a Research Associate for Margolis Healy and Associates—a professional services firm specializing in campus safety, security, and regulatory compliance for higher education and K-12—Morris was part of a research team funded by the Bureau of Justice Assistance to identify best practices and evidencebased university campus crime prevention programs across the nation. In 2012, as a Research Associate for the Vermont Center for Justice Research, he developed a seminar on evidence-based policing for Vermont law enforcement executives that has the potential for statewide impact. The team’s findings have the potential to impact federal funding streams, crime prevention best practices, and campus safety nationwide. According to Director of the School of Justice Studies and Sociology Dana Professor Stan Shernock, Morris brings “uncommon leadership and insight into any endeavor he undertakes, whether in the classroom, in service to the University, or in his research.” Receiving among the highest student evaluations in the College of Liberal Arts, a student described him as an “inspirational teacher” who “stimulates deep thought that many people wouldn’t venture into.” The classic teacher-scholar, every life experience informs Morris’ unfolding professional career—his newest project is his first book, which he will be working on over the next couple of years. Dr. Morris sees his scholarship as strongly informing and influencing his teaching. As a student, he experienced the inherent power of influence professors possess as role models, and he hopes to pay that legacy forward. “Our current students are our future leaders,” Morris says. “I want them to know that you impart who you are by what you do.”