The CRSS lab is a data and social science lab for students interested in research intensive careers. The lab offers students opportunities in data collection, data munging & wrangling, hand and machine coding, data analysis, and case studies development. The lab collects, codes and conducts geopolitical risk analysis, with a heavy emphasis on low-intensity conflict, social movements, democratic backsliding, and economic stability.

The CRSS Lab officially launched on January 12, 2025. The lab is interdisciplinary, attracting students from a diverse array of disciplines, fields and subfields.

Our inaugural cohort of masters & undergraduates students was drawn from Brown University’s departments of statistics, applied math, economics, business, political science, and international affairs.

While the lab predominately focuses on issues of geopolitical risk, health policy, and public policy, it also appeals to students from the natural sciences interested in learning R coding, empirical modeling, measurement, and survey methods – or those simply interested in the topical project.

The Conflict Research and Security Studies (CRSS) Lab is led by founder/director, Dr. Kimberly Turner. Four additional faculty affiliates run lab projects, with projects topics covering political and electoral violence, social movements and mass demonstrations, forced sterilization policies, democratic backsliding, and research methodology.

The lab offers only unpaid internships but encourages students to seek internal funding from their home departments and universities.

Depending on the length of their tenure and the projects available during their tenure, students will experience:

1. Theorizing and conceptualizing a research question
2. The data gathering process: from collection to cleaning to proper data management storage
3. Research Design, methodology, and statistical techniques
4. Data analysis and translation of results into reader-friendly terminology and data visualization
5. The writing, publishing and media process