Don't Mean Nothing (by Susan O'Neill)

Book Lab Instructor

Professor Molly Cannon and Dr. Susan Grayzel

Day/Time

Wednesdays, 3:00-4:00 p.m.

Dates

January 17 - February 7, 2023

Location

Zoom

Synopsis

"As someone barely out of her teens, Susan O'Neill went to Vietnam as an Army nurse from 1969-70; in many ways, this was the height of America's involvement in the war. Almost thirty years later, she wrote a series of deeply moving, deeply personal stories about her experience in Don't Mean Nothing. This book offers a rare glimpse into the Vietnam War experience from a female perspective. 

As part of a Tanner Symposium on Women and America's Vietnam War in March 2024, O'Neill will come to our campus to deliver a plenary address. We hope that students participating in this Book Lab will learn something about this conflict, about what it means to come of age as a woman in a war zone, and about female veterans. Above all, we hope that students will be inspired to interact with O’Neill during her visit to USU.  

This Book Lab will be co-taught by Susan Grayzel in History and Molly Cannon in Anthropology. We will bring an interdisciplinary perspective to our discussion and share insights from the “Bringing War Home Project,” a USU initiative funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities."