War Veterans

The War Veterans project aims to pursue multidisciplinary strands of inquiry into veterans’ return from war. It seeks to analyse war veterans in diverse post-war contexts, with a focus on West Africa and the United States. 

It will collate war veterans’ narratives of return based on transcripts of original qualitative interviews, focus groups, and participant observation, and additionally uses archival resources to build narrative histories of post-war adjustment. 

In the United States, the project centres on interviews with war veteran activists working to support veterans after the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. 

Students will contribute to research on three main themes: 

• Politics – the history and political impact of veterans’ return, focusing on veteran-led protest movements and re-recruitment of veterans into war-making projects. 
• Representation – the representation of veterans in novels and films, and veterans’ own efforts to resist stereotypical representations and social stigma. 
• Wellbeing – clinical debates about post-war rehabilitation strategies and the efficacy of diverse therapeutic modalities, including strategies that veterans themselves devise.

Project Supervisor

Dr Jaremey McMullin
Email: [email protected]