an initiative at Virginia Tech
Veterans
in Society
Cadre: 2/4
2016 NEH Summer Institute for College and University Teachers
Veterans in Society:
Ambiguities & Representations
10-29 July 2016
Blacksburg, VA, and Washington, DC
David Cline
is an historian specializing in 20th century U.S. social movements, oral history, and public history. He is currently an assistant professor of history at Virginia Tech, where he co-directs the Graduate Certificate in Public History and teaches courses in Public History, Oral History, Historical Research Methods, Museum Studies, Sports History, and the Civil Rights Movement. He was formerly the Associate and Acting Director of the Southern Oral History Program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He holds a BA in African Studies from Macalester College, an M.A. in U.S. History with a certificate in Public History from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and a Ph.D. in U.S. History from UNC Chapel Hill. David also has worked as a journalist, arts, administrator, and publicist. His public history projects have included work on a National Public Radio documentary on the Korean War in 2002-2003 and a 2005 project to document the Cherokee Trail of Tears.
Eric Hodges
is an assistant professor in interdisciplinary social sciences with specialization in political science at teh University of South Florida, Sarasota- Manatee. Eric holds a Ph.D. from Virginia Tech in Governance and Globalization and an M.A. from Virginia Tech in political and moral philosophy. Eric is also a U.S. Marine Corps veteran. As a graduate student, Eric taught several classes in political and moral theory, and conducted research into whether military veterans possess skills and values that encourage civic engagement. At USFSM, he teaches a special topics course on military veterans as well as courses in ISS and Political Science. Before graduate school, Eric served as a global adventure travel guide in places like Norway, France and Vermont.
​
​
​
Mariana Grohowski
holds a doctorate in Rhetoric and Writing from Bowling Green State University, a masters in Rhetoric and Technical Communication from Michigan Technological University, and a B.A. from Grand Valley State University. She is the founder and chief editor of the Journal of Veterans Studies. She is currently an assistant professor of English at Indiana University Southeast. Her research interests include the rhetorics of past, present, and future members of the U.S. military, emphasizing the multimodal nature of meaning-making and the importance for inclusive and accessible practices. Her publications include articles in Women & Language, Kairos: A Journal of Technology, Rhetoric, and Pedagogy, Composition Forum, and the Community Literacy Journal. She is an advisory board member for the Coalition of Feminist Scholars in the History of Rhetoric and Composition, and Women Veterans Social Justice. She tweets @mcgrohowski.
Peter Molin
is a former US Army infantry officer who now teaches at Rutgers University in New Jersey. While in uniform, Molin taught English at the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, for ten years. In 2008-2009, he deployed to Afghanistan, where he served as an advisor to Afghan National Army units in Khost and Paktya provinces. Molin also served overseas in South Korea; the Sinai, and Kosovo. His education: Indiana University (PhD), the University of California-Berkeley (MA), and the University of Virginia (BA). Peter has published and presented in the fields of contemporary war literature, American antebellum literature, and composition and rhetoric. Molin blogged about his Afghanistan deployment at petermolin.wordpress. com and currently blogs about contemporary war literature, photography, art, and film at Time Now. Follow him on Twitter at @TimeNowBlog (war art-and lit-related) and @PeteMolin (everything else).
​
Nathan Bell
Nathan Bell has lived life. At 56, the wizened songwriter’s weary voice bleeds experience. He’s seen both sides of the coin — traveled the nomadic, bohemian path of the hard-luck troubadour, and found comfort and meaning in the stability of a family, a home and a near two-decade corporate gig. And now, with a guitar back in his hands where it should be, he’s ready to tell the tale. But it’s not just his own story he’s after. It’s a story of America, of the working classes — both blue and white collar.
Bell is a songwriter’s songwriter, a man who has shared bills with legends like Townes Van Zandt, Emmylou Harris, Taj Mahal and Norman Blake. The son of a poet and professor, his concise narratives come wrapped in gorgeously downhome yet ethereal production, adorned with gentle harmonies, daydreaming mandolin and the occasional blanket of pedal steel. He’s got a keen eye for detail, and an unapologetic penchant for the political, populist humanism of his literary heroes John Steinbeck, Jack London and Studs Terkel. With his latest LP, I Don’t Do This for Love, I Do This for Love (the third installment in a potent trilogy that began with 2011’s Black Crow Blue and continued with 2014’s Blood Like a River), Bell has created a song cycle that is both moving and timely.
​
Ken McQuiston
founded Integrity Focused Consulting LLC , which consults the Department of Defense, industry, academia and sports organizations on leadership development, organizational culture, human resource management, workforce development, and organizational change management. In nearly 29 years in the United States Air Force Ken served at every level of Air Force leadership. He deployed as the Command Chief for the 455th Air Expeditionary Wing in Afghanistan where he was awarded the Bronze Star. His final assignment was as the Senior Enlisted Leader for the United States Transportation Command with responsibility for over 140,000 soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines, and coast guardsmen leading the global Defense Transportation System. He was also the finalist for the position of the 16th Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force (the highest-ranking enlisted member of the Air Force).
​
The Veterans in Society: Ambiguities and Representations 2016 summer institute for college faculty is a project of
Virginia Tech's Center for the Study of Rhetoric in Society and the University Libraries.
The 2016 Veterans in Society summer institute has been made possible in part by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities: Exploring the human endeavor. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this the institute or this website, do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities nor Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.
© 2015 by Virginia Tech. Site created with Wix.com