Local Military Matters: Bridging the Military-Civilian Gap through College-Community Interactions

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dc.contributorAllegheny Collegeen
dc.contributor.authorHart, D. Alexisen
dc.coverage.spatialUnited Statesen
dc.coverage.temporal21st centuryen
dc.coverage.temporal2000-2016en
dc.date.accessioned2016-09-13T03:30:23Zen
dc.date.available2016-09-13T03:30:23Zen
dc.date.issued2015-11en
dc.description.abstractThe call for papers for the 3rd annual Veterans in Society Conference included a statement made by President Ruscio of Washington & Lee University in which he wondered "whether people with different backgrounds, different experiences and different opinions can address difficult questions and, if not necessarily agree with one another, at least strive, with mutual respect, to better understand each other and to find common ground." Similar questions have been asked by generations of military veterans with respect to the potential impact of their military backgrounds and experiences in their lives as civilians. The oft-cited PEW Research Center's 2011 study of war and sacrifice in the Post-9/11 era draws attention to the "military-civilian gap" and notes that this gap "is much wider among younger respondents." Consequently, as Woll writes, "Reintegration challenges can be particularly pronounced for young service members and veterans enrolling in or returning to colleges, universities . . . where most of the students are younger and lack experience with and exposure to the military." Such lack of experience and understanding on the part of "traditional" college students not only can lead to student-veterans feeling frustrated or isolated in classrooms but also, at an extreme, result in behaviors such as those of the University of Florida fraternity members whose chapter was suspended after an incident in which disabled military veterans were verbally insulted and spat upon.<br /><br />In an effort to bridge the "military-civilian gap" and to help military veterans and college students "better understand each other," I designed a first-year seminar titled "Meadville's Military Matters" in which first-year college students at a fouryear liberal arts college interacted with, interviewed, and composed profiles and "war stories" (using David Venditta's War Stories: In Their Own Words as a model) for military veterans in the local community. While doing so, the students were asked to develop responses to the questions: Why does the military matter to the local community, to the nation, the world? What military matters have shaped the local community's economy, history, landscape, etc.?en
dc.description.notesPresented at Race and/or Reconciliation, the Third Conference on Veterans in Society, which took place in Roanoke, VA from November 12-14, 2015.en
dc.description.notesConference hosted by the Center for the Study of Rhetoric in Society, Department of English http://www.rhetoric.english.vt.edu/en
dc.format.extent3 pagesen
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdfen
dc.identifierHart_Local_Military_Matters.pdfen
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10919/72931en
dc.language.isoen_USen
dc.publisherVirginia Techen
dc.relation.ispartofRace and/or Reconciliation, the Third Conference on Veterans in Societyen
dc.relation.urihttp://veteransinsociety.wordpress.com/en
dc.relation.urihttp://www.rhetoric.english.vt.edu/en
dc.rightsIn Copyrighten
dc.rights.holderHart, D. Alexisen
dc.rights.urihttp://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/en
dc.subjectMilitary-civilian gapen
dc.subjectStudent-veteransen
dc.subjectCollege studentsen
dc.subjectMilitary veteransen
dc.subjectCommunity-engaged coursesen
dc.titleLocal Military Matters: Bridging the Military-Civilian Gap through College-Community Interactionsen
dc.typePresentationen
dc.typeConference proceedingen
dc.type.dcmitypeTexten

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Veterans in Society 2015: Race and/or Reconciliation
Veterans in Society 2015: Race and/or Reconciliation, Center for the Study of Rhetoric in Society