During the summer of 2013, I interned at the New
Jersey Vietnam Veterans’ Memorial. Sarah Hagarty, the Memorial’s curator, had
been doing a lot of great work organizing forums comprised of veterans and
historians alike to educate the public about various topics of scholarship
about the Vietnam War. In one of our conversations, she mentioned that she was organizing a forum that would address American women’s experiences in the military during
the Vietnam War. I was immediately intrigued, and submitted a proposal to write
my senior thesis on this topic.
Through
this Omeka project, I hope to transform my thesis for a digital platform. Between
10-15,000 women served in the military in Vietnam, but their experiences have
all but remained on the periphery of historical scholarship. It is my hope to
make my research and the research of historians on this topic available online
for a larger audience.
The
1960s and 1970s on the American home front was a time of social change and
activism for various groups, including women. Through the site, I hope to
infuse an understanding of these changes in how women understood themselves and
their decision to go to Vietnam. I also hope to spark a conversation about what
women’s experiences said about the relationship between the military and women.
By including already published oral histories (both audio and transcript
files), pictures, military pamphlets, and short narrative pieces about women’s
lives before, during, and after their tours of duty, I hope to make this story an
accessible one. I seek to use spatial mapping tools to place women's experiences on a map in various of areas served in Vietnam. Ultimately, I hope to make this Omeka site a starting point for citizen historians, veterans, and academics alike who want to learn more about the topic outside of my project.
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