Education Programs About War
NEH seeks grant proposals that explore war and its aftermath, promote discussion of the experience of
military service, and support returning veterans and their families.
- “America’s Longest War: Vietnam, 1945-1975,” Summer Seminar for College and University Teachers, University of Miami, Summer 2005 (FS-50053-04).
Although the emphasis of this project was the broad diplomatic, political, and military context of the Vietnam War, the seminar did look at the nature of the warfare in the countryside and efforts at pacification, both of which involved American soldiers on a day-to-day basis.
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“Trajan’s Column: Narratives of War, Civilization, and Commemoration in the Roman Empire,” Summer Seminar for College and University Teachers, American Academy in Rome, Summer 2006 (FS-50084-05).
This seminar used a famous imperial victory monument to investigate, among other topics, the Roman army at war, the social and economic aspects of conquest, and how war was commemorated.
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“America and the Great War: An Interdisciplinary Seminar in Literature and History,” Summer Seminar for School Teachers, University of Kansas, Summer 2010 (FV-50238-09).
This broadly-conceived study of American participation in World War I included key sections on wartime mobilization and the experiences of American soldiers, using historical and literary sources.
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“George Washington and His Legacy: Myths, Symbols and Reality,” Summer Institute for School Teachers, Boston University, Summer 2009 (ES-50254-08).
This summer institute, on the subject of Washington’s character, career, and legacy, devoted significant attention to his military service. First held in 2005.
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“NEH Enduring Questions Course on ‘Is There Such a Thing as a Just War?’”, Kean University (AQ-50184-10).
This course considered classic humanities questions about justifications for going to war.
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“The USS Constitution and the War of 1812,” Landmarks of American History and Culture Workshop for School Teachers, USS Constitution Museum, Summer 2013 (BH-50529-12).
This workshop considered not only the broad context of the war with Great Britain, but also looked closely at the lives and experiences of the officers and sailors who served in the US navy.
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“World War I in the Middle East,” Summer Seminar for College and University Teachers, Georgetown University, Summer 2014 (FS-50353-13).
The experience of World War I is central to this seminar, which devotes considerable attention to the lives of Middle Eastern soldiers and the impact of the war on the civilian population. First held at American University in 2012.
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“On Hallowed Ground: Gettysburg in History and Memory,” Landmarks of American History and Culture Workshop for School Teachers, Gettysburg College, Summer 2014 (BH-50587-13).
In addition to looking closely at soldiers’ and officers’ experiences during the three days of the epic Civil War battle, the workshop investigates Lincoln’s justification for military sacrifice in the Gettysburg Address, and the ways that the war remembered by veterans and civilians in the decades that followed.
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“The San Francisco Bay Area Home Front in World War II,” Landmarks of American History and Culture Workshop for School Teachers, University of California-Berkeley, Summer 2014 (BH-50576-13).
While more a study of economic mobilization, labor, and the civilian home front during World War II, this project also looks at coastal defenses in California and meets with a group of WWII veterans aboard the USS Red Oak.
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“NEH Enduring Questions Course on Concepts of Peace in Western and Eastern Cultures,” Georgia State College and University (AQ-51123).
This course, for cadets and civilian students one of the nation’s military colleges, would look at justifications for war as well as conditions necessary for peace.
11. “The Journey Home: Diminishing Dissonance for Community College Student Veterans,” Humanities Initiatives for Community Colleges, McHenry Community College, 2016 (AE-248070-16).
This three-year project develops courses that focus on the effects of wars on nations through historical and literary readings, and also establishes a veterans-centered partnership between the college and the Pritzker Military Museum and Library.
12. “Echoes of War,” Dialogues on the Experience of War, Minnesota Humanities Center, 2016 (AV-248453-16).
Minnesota Humanities Center offers this public discussion program for veterans to explore the lived and recorded experiences of war in literature and in local war memorials.
13. “One Hundred Years of American Women in Uniform,” University of Maryand, College Park, MD, 2016 (AV-248473-16).
This discussion program for student veterans and the public explores the experiences of female veterans in World War I and the current Iraq and Afghanistan wars through memoirs, photography, and artifacts in the National Museum of American History.
14. “West Texans and the Experience of War: World War I to the Present,” Humanities Initiatives for Hispanic-Serving Institutions, Angelo State University, 2015 (226771-15)
This oral history and archival project at Angelo State University in West Texas preserves and examines the experiences of America’s military veterans and their families from World War I to the present.
15. “Veterans in American Society,” Summer Institutes for College and University Teachers, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 2016 (EH-231264-15).
Twenty-five college and university faculty gathered in Blacksburg, Virginia and Washington, DC to study the history and experiences of military veterans in the United States from the Civil War to the present. This institute took its faculty participants into the archives of the university and the Library of Congress, to war memorials throughout Washington and Northern Virginia, and into discussion with the staff of the Veterans History Project.