Women and America's Vietnam War Symposium
Friday, March 1, 2024
Eccles Conference Center
Utah State University
Logan, Utah
The United States formally ended its participation in what it called the Vietnam War fifty years ago. Many are still living with the legacies of this conflict, and one of the populations deeply affected by this devastating event were the women of many backgrounds who served militarily, had loved ones go to war, tended those affected by their direct participation in the war, protested its impact, or otherwise attempted to make sense of the war’s complex experiences and legacies.
In connection with USU’s ongoing Bringing War Home Project that is collecting objects and stories from veterans and military families about modern war, we invite students, scholars, creative artists, and community members to share perspectives, especially from local history, in order to open conversations about the experiences of women who participated on multiple sides and sites of this conflict. We encourage interdisciplinary submissions from history, anthropology, material culture studies, archival studies, communications, literature, and the creative arts.
This will be a live event, but there will be options for virtual participation for those who cannot attend in person.
We ask those interested in attending (either in person or remotely) to register in advance. It will not be possible to access the live-stream without pre-registration.
Event Schedule
| Time | Event |
|---|---|
| 9:00 a.m. | Opening Remarks & Welcome: Molly Boeka Cannon and Susan R. Grayzel, USU |
| 9:15 a.m. | Opening Plenary: Kara Dixon Vuic, LCpl. Benjamin W. Schmidt Professor of War, Conflict, and Society in Twentieth-Century America, Texas Christian University. "Compelling Service: American Women and the War in Vietnam" |
| 10:30 a.m. | BEVERAGE AND SNACK BREAK |
| 10:45 a.m. | Entangled History of Women and America's Vietnam War (Hybrid Panel by Historians) |
| 12:15 p.m. | Undergraduate Researchers (Mini-Panel) |
| 12:45 p.m. | LUNCH BREAK |
| 2:15 p.m. | Roundtable: Utah Women's Veterans of the War |
| 3:15 p.m. | Reading: Susan O'Neill, veteran author of Don't Mean Nothing |
| 4:15 p.m. | BEVERAGE AND SNACK BREAK |
| 4:30 p.m. | Closing Plenary Reading: Thi Bui, author of The Best We Could Do |
| 5:30 p.m. | Reception and Book Signing with all three plenary speakers |
Presenters
Thi Bui
Thi Bui was born in Vietnam and came to the United States in 1978 as part of the “boat people” wave of refugees fleeing Southeast Asia at the end of the Vietnam War. Her debut graphic memoir, The Best We Could Do, (Abrams ComicArts, 2017) is a history of her and her parents' experiences of the war in Vietnam and after their arrival to the United States. It has been selected for an American Book Award, a Common Book for UCLA and other colleges and universities, an all-city read by Seattle and San Francisco public libraries, a National Book Critics Circle finalist in autobiography, and an Eisner Award finalist in reality-based comics. It made over thirty best of 2017 book lists.
Susan O'Neill
Susan O’Neill served as nurse in Vietnam and wrote an account of this experience in her collection of interconnected short stories, Don’t Mean Nothing, first published in 2001, and then revised and reissued in 2014.
Professor Kara Dixon Vuic
Kara Dixon Vuic, LCpl Benjamin W. Schmidt Professor of War, Conflict and Society in Twentieth-Century America, at Texas Christian University. She is the author of Officer, Nurse, Woman: The Army Nurse Corps in the Vietnam War (John Hopkins, 2009) and award-winning history of the USOs The Girls Next Door: Bringing the Home Front to the Front Lines (Harvard, 2019). She is currently working on a history of the debates about drafting women into the military. She is one of the leading experts on the history of American women and war and on the Vietnam War in particular.