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For 2020, the VIS conference invites scholars in the social sciences, humanities, and arts to cross national, cultural, historical, and disciplinary boundaries to address the theme of “Veteran Identity, Advocacy, and Representation.” 

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The conference is a forum for scholars – including students and professionals working outside academia – to present work that speaks to the varieties and complexities of veterans' interactions with their larger societies.  The scope is not restricted to any country, any era, any degree of peace or war – and certainly not to any one conception of “veteran.”

Identity

• What are some of the key differences/similarities among combat veterans, veterans who served in the military during wartime but did not deploy, and peacetime veterans?

• What are some of the key differences/similarities among military veterans and civilians who become first responders such as police officers and firefighters?

• How might veteran identity affect electability? Do veterans in elected office demonstrate distinctive styles of political behavior and/or lead to distinctive political outputs?

• Are veterans more similar to other veterans across national/historic/geographic borders than they are to their civilian counterparts? What are ways we are bridging or widening the veteran-civilian divide?

• How have societies (in the USA or globally, now or historically) encountered, internalized, and/or challenged veterans’ identities?

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Advocacy

• How effective, and in what form, is or has been, advocacy for education, employment, health, and well-being for veterans and their families? Is the support provided by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) sufficient to meet the needs of veterans and their families? If not, how are veterans advocates filling those gaps?

• What are some of the revitalized and/or creative new forces advocating for veterans with PTS and moral injury?

• What are the motivations, modalities, and implications for veterans who continue to serve other veterans and/or their wider civilian communities after taking off the uniform?

• In what ways, how intensively, and for what causes do/have veterans engage/d in civil society/public affairs? In what respects is their engagement different from civilians with similar demographics? In what respects are engaged veterans more similar to other veterans across national or historical boundaries than they are to their civilian counterparts?

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Representation

• Who are veterans; how well are veterans who served in peacetime understood and/or represented in scholarship, creative arts, and culture?

• How does/has gender stereotyping and/or mis- and under-representation of minorities (i.e., racial, ethnic, gender, sexuality) affect/ed societies, cultural understanding, individual understanding, research, policy, etc.?

• How are veterans changing—how have they changed—popular narratives within military and civilian cultures?

• How have veterans’ interactions with their communities been represented in literature, drama, and cinema, including works that are not overtly about veterans?