The Contemporary History Institute welcomes journalist David Finkel to deliver the keynote address for the “Coming Home from War” program on April 4 at 7:30 p.m. in Baker 242.
The event is free and open to the public.
The Pulitzer Prize-winner presents “‘Welcome Home, Sgt. Schumann’: Why We Keep Telling and Retelling Stories about War,” which caps off the National Endowment for the Humanities-supported veterans’ program run by the institute throughout the 2018-19 academic year.
David Finkel
A keen observer of the devastating effects of war on the human psyche, Finkel explores the experience of men and women at war as well as their return home. Following his 2007 embedding with a U.S. Army infantry battalion in Baghdad during the troop surge, Finkel wrote the award-winning The Good Soldiers. The 2013 follow-up, Thank You for Your Service focuses on the battalion’s return home, following the soldiers in their stress-filled and traumatic post-deployment readjustment to civilian lives. The bestselling book led to a 2017 feature-length film adaptation starring Miles Teller and Amy Schumer.
Through conversations about humanities sources (film, fiction, poetry, theater), CHI’s “Coming Home from War” program brought together area combat veterans and service members to reflect on their service and homecoming experiences. Groups of veterans (some 35 participants overall) met in Athens and on the Dublin campus in late January and February. Along with the group meetings, the program offered two other public events, including a stage reading of the play Ajax and a screening of an episode of the Ken Burns and Lynn Novick documentary, The Vietnam War.
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