Director, Dr. Jason A. Higgins is the Digital Scholarship Coordinator for Virginia Tech Publishing and an assistant professor affiliated with the Department of History. At Virginia Tech, he teaches the Vietnam War, African American History, and Oral History. He earned a Ph.D. in History from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, focusing on Modern US, Global, and African American History and specializing in the Vietnam War and veterans’ history. He also has a graduate certificate in Public History and a Master’s in English literature. Since 2011, he has interviewed over 120 veterans of U.S. wars, including WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan. He is the author of Prisoners after War: Veterans in the Age of Mass Incarceration (UMass Press, 2024). He is also the co-editor of Service Denied: Marginalized Veterans in Modern American History, also published in UMass Press’ “Veterans” series (2022). Dr. Higgins has led numerous oral history training workshops and developed open access training modules designed to train students to do oral history projects ethically and responsibly. In his Vietnam War course, students have completed over 35 oral history interviews with Vietnam veterans in collaboration with the Library of Congress Veterans History Project. As a public historian, Higgins emphasizes the great importance of building relationships with community partners and employing oral history to educate and bridge the divide between civilians and veterans.
Co-director, Dr. Jim Dubinsky is a retired lieutenant colonel, an Associate Professor of English, and the co-founder of Veterans in Society at Virginia Tech. In 2016, he directed a NEH Institute for Higher Education on Veterans Studies, and he is currently teaching a NEH-sponsored Clemente Veterans Initiative course. He brings special expertise in technical writing, literature, and poetry written by veterans, the perspective of a career military officer, and vast experience as a leader in Veterans Studies. As co-director, his primary responsibilities will include recruitment and planning, facilitating roundtable discussions, providing special insights on working with veteran communities, and serving as a resident senior scholar of Veterans Studies and literature.
Co-director, Dr. Trevor Stewart is a Marine Corps veteran and Associate Professor of Education at Virginia Tech. Dr. Stewart will serve as our pedagogical expert and English education specialist. He has vast experience in training teachers to enter the K-12 field, so his insights will be especially helpful in curriculum design, developing workshops for the teachers, and applying Veterans Studies and oral history in K-12 classroom settings. Dr. Stewart’s scholarship emphasizes the importance of making creativity a central element of the learning process and exploring the intersection between language and culture. He is interested in supporting K-12 teachers’ abilities to explore the experiences of veterans and their families with their students. As a former National Writing Project Fellow, Dr. Stewart sees writing and oral history as key avenues for helping teachers, students, and communities explore their lived experiences in K-12 classrooms.
K-12 leader, Dr. Jim Hill is currently an English teacher at Montgomery County Public Schools, VA and a U.S. Army veteran of Operation Enduring Freedom. Dr. Hill will advise the institute on K-12 curriculum, help plan workshops for participants, and help with outreach initiatives to attract K-12 participants. Among the team, he has the most firsthand knowledge of working in a K-12 setting, so he will provide insights into developing lesson plans, creatively enhancing the standard curriculum, and helping teachers plan for the various challenges they may face in putting these concepts into practice.
Julia Lucas is a graduate student in the Department of History at Virginia Tech, studying the Civil War and Public History. She served as the graduate assistant for the Summer Institute. In preparing for the institute, she met weekly with the director during planning, helped organize logistics and social media communication, advertisements, and assisted with creation of Canvas page. During the two weeks of the institute, she proved invaluable to our success. She provided transportation for participants from the airport, to the classroom sites, and dining and residential facilities on campus. She also took many photographs during events and served as a point of contact for the participants.
Visiting Scholars
Dr. Mariana Grohowski is a Core Faculty Member at Sofia University and Adjunct Lecturer of Veterans Studies at the University of California, Irvine. She is also the founder and Editor in Chief of the interdisciplinary, open-access Journal of Veterans Studies. The goals of the journal are to sustain international research in Veterans Studies, facilitate interdisciplinary research collaborations, and narrow gaps between cultures, institutions, experiences, knowledge, and understanding. Dr. Grohowski’s research focuses on under- and mis-represented populations, specifically marginalized communities in the U.S. military. She engages questions of gender and the U.S. military, accessibility, and mental illness. Dr. Grohowski is also the founder of the Veterans Studies Association, a scholarly Michigan nonprofit organization that encourages research of the interactions between veteran communities and civilian society. Dr. Grohowski led a workshop on integrating Veterans Studies into curriculum, joined a roundtable discussion with veterans and civilians, sharing her perspective as the daughter of a Vietnam veteran, offered consultation services to the educators.
Dr. John M. Kinder is director of American Studies and Associate Professor of History at Oklahoma State University. A scholar of war and society, he is the author of Paying with Their Bodies: American War and the Problem of the Disabled Veteran (University of Chicago Press, 2015) and co-editor, with Jason A. Higgins, of Service Denied: Marginalized Veterans in Modern American History (University of Massachusetts Press, 2022). He is current projects include The Ark and the Flood: How Zoos Survived World War II (under contract with the University of Chicago Press) and “They Are Dead, and Yet They Live”: Civil War Memories in a Polarized America (under contract with the University of Nebraska Press.) Dr. Kinder was a featured visiting scholar in Blacksburg and gave a lecture on veterans with disabilities and cultural representations of veterans. He offered consultation services on aspects of disability and provided advice for those interested in teaching about veterans through the lens of American studies and pop culture.
Dr. Qwynn Galloway-Salazar is the founder of In Their Honor, LLC and Co-Principal Investigator of the Brooklyn College Veterans History Project. From 2001-2006, she served in the United States Army. Her professional experience has spanned over 20 years of working with military and veteran communities in local, state, federal, and academic organizations, so she brings special insights into connecting with veterans and enabling them to speak about challenging experiences during and after military service. Dr. Galloway-Salazar received her Ph.D. from Walden University, specializing in Industrial and Organizational Psychology. In addition, she holds a Master of Arts degree in Professional Counseling and a Bachelor of Science degree in Criminal Justice. She serves on the Board of Directors for the American Association of Suicidology, Minority Veterans of America, and the Advisory Board of the Veterans Studies Association. Her doctoral dissertation entitled: “Post-9/11 Women Veterans’ Experiences Transitioning into the Civilian Workforce” shares the stories of women veterans and is permanently housed at the Military Women’s Memorial in Arlington, VA. She also served as a qualitative researcher for the FY21 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), § 9104, Study on Unemployment Rate of Women Veterans Who Served on Active Duty in the Armed Forces after September 11, 2001. After being inspired by her late friend, Dr. Kate Hendricks-Thomas, Qwynn started the Legacy Collection, where she collects oral history interviews of women Veterans. Qwynn also serves as an End-of-Life Doula, Death Educator, and Qualitative Researcher. She is recognized as a thought leader in end-of-life care for veterans and their caregivers. Her recent work has been featured by the International End of Life Doula Association, End of Life University, the International Doulagivers Institute, Elizabeth Dole Foundation, and the PsychArmor Institute. As a result of her dedication, she was recognized as the 2022 State of Georgia’s Woman Veteran of the Year. Drawing from both her research and her personal experiences as a veterans and the wife of a combat vet, Dr. Galloway-Salazar led a workshop on interviewing survivors of trauma and gave a thoughtful presentation on mental health and providing end of life care for veterans.
Dr. Kara Dixon Vuic is the LCpl. Benjamin W. Schmidt Professor of War, Conflict, and Society in Twentieth-Century America at Texas Christian University and author of The Girls Next Door: Bringing the Home Front to the Front Lines as well as Officer, Nurse, Woman: The Army Nurse Corps in the Vietnam War. Dr. Dixon Vuic will lead an on-site discussion in Washington D.C. at the Military Women’s Memorial, which has extensive oral history collections, with corresponding readings from her edited collection: The Routledge History of Gender, War, and the U.S. Militaryand her chapter in Service Denied: Marginalized Veterans in Modern American History. Dr. Vuic joined the institute in Washington D.C. at the Military Women’s Memorial and gave a compelling talk on the history of women in the military throughout the twentieth century and provided advice for those who wanted to teach about gender and military service in the classroom.
Featured Veteran Speakers
Richard Brookshire is co-founder and former CEO of the Black Veterans Project. As a storyteller, Richard leverages a background in political communications and digital advocacy to deliver strategic and dynamic social-impact campaigns. He is an alumnus of Morehouse College and a graduate of Fordham University. He holds an MPA in Urban & Social Policy with specialization in Media & Advocacy from Columbia University School of International & Public Affairs. A former infantry Combat Medic and U.S. Army veteran of the War in Afghanistan, Richard’s commentary and work has been highlighted by The New York Times, The Washington Post, USA Today, CNN, PBS Newshour, the Grio and others. During the institute, Mr. Brookshire participated in a panel of veterans as well as a live interview with Dr. Higgins in front of the participants.
John Ketwig is the best-selling author of … And A Hard Rain Fell: A G.I.’s True Story of the War in Vietnam as well as Vietnam Reconsidered: The War, The Times, and Why They Matter. Ketwig was drafted into the US Army and served one year in Vietnam beginning in Sept 1967. At the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Ketwig gave a moving talk, discussing his experiences in Vietnam, why he joined the Vietnam Veterans Against the War, and the heart-breaking story of the death of his infant, who was born with birth defects that he believes are related to exposure to Agent Orange. At the wall, he reflected on what memorialization means to him and shared that it has taken him decades to heal from the wounds of the war.