Abstract: What does it mean to be an academic who is also a war veteran? This paper examines that question as I delve into my own identity and positionality as a war veteran and as an academic who critically examines war and militarism. It is broken up into three sections: living war, writing war, and teaching war. Living war refers to what it is like to be a war veteran in academic spaces, from a student perspective to a teaching perspective. Writing war examines some of the ways in which war experiences can be utilized in academic writing, as it examines a few useful methodologies that were helpful and healing in my experience. Finally, teaching war reiterates the importance to centre war in the classroom and provides an example that I often use in the classroom. The primary aim of this paper is to discuss the reciprocal aspects of the interactions between my embodied war experience and higher education institutions.
While most individuals achieve the transition to civilian life smoothly, some face significant challenges. Although numerous support services are available to those who need them, …