Category Informed Opinions
Military spouses to veteran spouses
It’s been a while since we’ve posted here, so thanks if you’re reading this. Professional life has a cadence, and for a variety of reasons, the cadence of work and life has led to a lull in our posting. Hopefully we can get back in the saddle! As a scholar of veterans and their experiences, […]
When we survey military spouses, who are we really studying?
You might have heard a lot about military spouses in the last week because President Trump signed an executive order about military spouse employment and “Military Spouse Appreciation Day” was last Friday. When we hear information or reports about military spouses we tend to think we are talking about the community as a whole—anyone who […]
Why #metoo won’t be a watershed moment for the military
Over the last several months our country has been experiencing a cultural reckoning around the issues of sexual harassment and sexual assault, especially in relation to women in the workplace. After allegations about Harvey Weinstein, a Hollywood executive and producer, became public we continue to witness the fall of top journalists, actors, and political leaders […]
Book Review: Portraits of Courage
I remember a couple years ago when I first heard that George W. Bush was painting wounded warriors – I wasn’t sure what to think. On the hand, I was very cynical, “painting the people he sent to war?” It seemed like an empty gesture coming far too late. But then I heard him interviewed […]
Do employers discriminate against veterans in hiring?
I am currently in Tucson at the Arizona Methods Workshops refreshing and updating my knowledge on experiments in social sciences. It’s been a number of years since I last conducted a field experiment of hiring, often called an audit study. This research method is deceptively simple—send applications for fictitious job seekers in response to real […]
Military graduate students in civilian universities
In recent years, the Department of Defense has made the wise decision to allow mid-career officers increased opportunity to pursue advanced degrees at civilian universities. There have long been programs allowing officers to earn civilian graduate degrees as part of their official military duties, but these opportunities appear to be on the rise. I am […]
Military service as a transformative experience
In Transformative Experience, philosopher L.A. Paul grapples with the dilemma of how to make decisions about life-changing experiences when the nature of that experience can’t be understood until experienced, and when the experience itself might change the very values upon which one would make such decisions. She offers several running examples of transformative experiences, such […]
Sidra Montgomery
Meredith Kleykamp
Veteran Scholars 