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National University NEH Dialogues of War Project: Veterans Speak 2025

Faculty

Dr. Lorna Zukas

Professor of Sociology, National University

Project Director Dr. Lorna Zukas is a sociologist specializing in political transitions in Southern Africa, gender and development, and digital innovation in education. Her research focuses on the politics of public remembering and memorialization. She has worked with ex-freedom fighters in Zimbabwe and worked on reintegration projects with post-conflict populations in Rwanda. Her experience as a gender and development consultant, and as a Director for the Center for Cultural and Ethnic Studies at National University (1998-2007), has given her extensive experience in cross-cultural, interdisciplinary collaboration. Dr. Zukas is dedicated to providing opportunity-rich public programming enabling the university and the community to come together.

She is a co-author of two successful National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Dialogues on the Experience of War Grant Program proposals. The first, A Soldier’s Place: Veterans and Civilians Speaking about War, was a collaborative project for veterans and civilians interested in studying and understanding war and its impacts on people and societies from ancient Greece to today. The second, Legacies of War: Memorials & Memories of the American Civil War and the Vietnam War, is a program offering all interested individuals a chance to collaborate in the examination of why the American Civil War and the Vietnam War continue to resonate in public and private memory and how their contested meanings still spark division in our nation.

Dr. Alexander Zukas

Emeritus Professor of History and Archive Director of National University’s Community Oral History Project (COHP).

Dr. Alexander Zukas is a historian of the modern world with expertise and publications in social history and participatory learning. He was the founding director of the BA and MA History Programs at National University where he taught courses on World History and World War II, and supervised M.A. theses on Japanese Postwar Memory, PTSD after the American Civil War, Civil-Military Relations in the American Revolutionary War, and A Study of Soldier Attitudes as Reflected in War Movies Made During and After World War II. He founded the COHP as a pedagogical tool and trained students in standard oral historical methodologies, interviewing techniques, and technical competencies. He guided their interviews with local World War II veterans, Native Americans, labor organizers, and civil rights leaders.

As  Co-PI for National University’s first National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) grant program,  “A Soldier’s Place: Veterans and Civilians Speaking about War,” he led the  Preparatory Program to  train NEH Discussion Leaders and advised discussion group leaders throughout the program. As an award-winning educator, Dr. Zukas will instruct NEH Discussion Leaders in the current NEH program, “Legacies of War: Memorials & Memories of the American Civil War and the Vietnam War,” in methods of discussion facilitation, articulation of concepts in readings and films, and techniques for handling emotional discussion topics. Throughout the program, Dr. Zukas will guide discussion leaders in facilitating thoughtful, inclusive conversations around complex historical themes.

Dr. Susan R. Dixon

Author & Writing Coach

Dr. Susan Dixon holds a doctorate in medieval art history from Cornell University. She has worked as a museum curator, writer, editor, and teacher in classrooms and as a private and group coach. She is co-author of Seeking Quan Am: A Dual Memoir of War and Vietnam, written with a Vietnam veteran. For five years she has led a writing/discussion group of civilians concerning issues of war, veterans, and citizenship called “The Pen and the Sword.” She maintains websites at www.susanrdixon.com and www.seekingquanam.com, as well as a private site for The Pen and the Sword. As a project trainer and mentor, she will focus on discussion facilitation techniques, writing prompts, and Vietnam War content.


Dr. Duncan A. Campbell

Professor of History, National University

Project co-DirectorDr. Campbell grew up in the United Kingdom, Southern Africa, and Canada. He completed his B.A. at Queen's University in 1991, and his M.A. at the University of Toronto in 1992. Then he returned to the UK, where he completed his Ph.D. in History at the University of Cambridge in 1997. From 1998-2007, Dr. Campbell taught in the Department of American Studies at the University of Wales, Swansea (now Swansea University); and from 2007-2011, he taught in the American Studies Department at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. Dr. Campbell took up his current position as Professor of History at National University in San Diego in 2013.
 

He is the author of English Public Opinion and the American Civil War (2003); Unlikely Allies: Britain, America, and the Victorian Origins of the “Special Relationship” (2007) and The Civil War in the Age of Nationalism (2024, with Niels Eichhorn).

Dr. Niels Eichhorn

Educator & Public Historian

Dr. Niels Eichhorn is a historian of the Civil War. His research is on the American Civil War, and he is author of numerous books such as Liberty and Slavery: European Separatists, Southern Secession, and the American Civil War (LSU Press, 2019); Atlantic History in the Nineteenth Century: Migration, Trade, Conflict, and Ideas (Palgrave, 2019), The Civil War Battles of Macon (History Press, 2021); and The Civil War in the Age of Nationalism (LSU Press, 2024) and articles on various facets of the war. He is Editor-in-Chief at H-CivWar and host of the War of the Rebellion Podcast/YouTube Channel, with numerous author interviews and exploration videos. He will serve as a project mentor and trainer responsible for Civil War content and teaching HIS490/HIS315.