Teaching War and Media

Below are some sample syllabi, course exercises and other materials of interest to our

From The American Peace Society, circa 1906

members. If you have something suitable for sharing, please forward it to Stacy Takacs.

Sites of Interest on the Web

“A Veteran’s Perspective on Literature and the English Major” — a very helpful blog post about war, literature, and especially soldier-authored literature, by Travis Klempan, a creative writer and former Naval enlistee.

American Peace Society archives, a collection of historical pamphlets about teaching peace/ending war.

Institute for Humane Education’s “Teaching about War and Peace” Pinterest site — contains a variety of materials with an emphasis on peace curricula.

PBS Learning site about “Women, War and Peace” — geared to K-12, but there may be some useful materials, including clips from the PBS documentary.

Buffalo State U’s Vietnam Veteran’s Oral History and Folklore Project — see Lydia Fish’s amazing work on Vietnam folks songs.

Tom Pilsch’s History of War Resources page — Unbelievable collection of links to resources!

US Government Information Manual for the Motion Picture Industry — the whole thing from the Office of War Information (WWII) in PDF!

US Library of Congress Experiencing War Site — this link is to a reference page for themed collections on various wars. See additional links from LOC below.

West Point History Dept. Atlas of West Point — great collection of documents, maps, charts, etc. on conflicts from ancient warfare through Iraq.

Witness to War — Video Histories of Combat Vets

Syllabi about War, Militarism, and Media

War in Film and Media – Spring 2017, Dr. Tanine Allison, Assistant Professor of Film and Media Studies at Emory U. Tanine is the author of the Destructive Sublime: World War II in Film and Media (Rutgers UP, coming soon). The course is an upper division course focusing on war in film and media (notably TV and video games) from WWI through the War on Terrorism.

War in American Culture – Spring 2016, Dr. John Kinder, Associate Professor of History and American Studies, Oklahoma State U. John is the author of Paying With Their Bodies: American War and the Problem of the Disabled Veteran (U of Chicago Press, 2015). The course is an overview of war and conflict in American popular culture.

Introduction to Fim Studies: Social Traumas — Spring 2014, Dr. Anna Froula, Associate Professor of English, East Carolina U. Anna is the outgoing assistant editor of Cinema Journal, as well as co-editor the following volumes: Reframing 9/11: Film, Popular Culture and the “War on Terror” (Bloomsbury, 2010), It’s a Mad World: The Cinema of Terry Gilliam (Columbia UP/Wallflower, 2013), and American Militarism on the Small Screen (Routledge, 2016). Both readings and exercises here may be adaptable for War and Media courses.

War and Society in US Culture — Fall 2016, Dr. David Kieran, Assistant Professor of History and American Studies, Washington & Jefferson U. Dave is a member of the War and Peace Studies Caucus of the American Studies Association and author of Forever Vietnam: How a Divisive War Changed American Public Memory (U of Massachusetts Press, 2014), editor of The War of My Generation: Youth Culture and the War on Terror (Rutgers University Press, 2015) and co-editor of At War: Militarism and American Culture in the Twentieth Century and Beyond (Rutgers University Press, 2017).

Course Activities or Assignments

Intertextuality Project, by Anna Froula. The assignment sheet uses representations of war as the model for the project, which is adaptable to other topics.