Coming Home from War: Conversations for Veterans in Southern Ohio and the Appalachian Region

FAIN: AV-260606-18

Ohio University (Athens, OH 45701-1361)
Ingo Trauschweizer (Project Director: November 2017 to February 2021)

A seminar, four discussion groups, and a public program in Athens, Ohio and the surrounding  southern Ohio area.

Ohio University proposes “Coming Home from War: Conversations for Veterans in Southern Ohio and the Appalachian Region” to explore the effects of combat experiences, from coping with killing to survivor’s guilt; reintegration into society; coping with trauma, injuries, and disabilities; and coming home to an economically stressed region. Themes include conceptions of masculinity, gender, and group identity; coping with traumas caused by combat and witnessing death and atrocities; and coping with the memory of killing. Sources include poetry, drama, tragedy, literature, film, and history. Prospective conversation group leaders will also read on critical context (psychology, sociology, communications, and media studies), in a training program led by faculty members from multiple disciplines. Veterans will be asked to consider in what ways these sources make them think differently about their own experiences or allow them to give voice to memories, emotions, and lingering effects of war.