Faculty member Sarah Myers receives grant from National Endowment for the Humanities

The National Endowment for the Humanities recently announced Dr. Sarah Myers, assistant professor of history at Messiah College, as one of the recipients of the National Endowment for the Humanities Dialogues on the Experience of War Grant for her outstanding work with female veterans. Just 17 percent of proposals received funding this year.

Myers’ program, “We are Veterans Too: Women’s Experiences in the U.S. Military,” will organize and hold discussion groups that generate conversations with female veterans and service members over cultural issues within the military. By creating a network of NEH-trained discussion leaders who can lead university and community learning, based on the humanities disciplines, the program will illuminate the diversity of human experiences and historical trends in the female veteran experience. Sessions will be conducted at five institutions in Texas, California, Florida, Virginia, and Georgia, which have the highest concentration of female veterans according to the Department of Veterans Affairs.

“I was interested in applying for this grant because of my participation in a 2016 NEH Summer Seminar on “Veterans in Society,” Myers said. “The seminar sparked my interest in finding new ways to carve out spaces for veterans’ voices as I learned the impact of military service on veterans, female perceptions of themselves as veterans, and veteran reintegration into society.”