Veterans possess complex narratives and yet Veterans are often constructed as stereotyped characters. This is a powerful and troubling statement about how we (fail to) understand veterans as individuals and as a population, and how the ways we (fail to) know them affect the cultures of support we build for them.
In this session, we will explore the extraordinary, but often erased, ambiguity of "veteran narratives," we will discuss why acknowledging this ambiguity is so vitally important, and we will discuss practical ways to ensure that support services on campus and in the workplace are imagined in a way that keeps veterans from becoming either typecasts or props within a constructed narrative.
To round out the presentation, we will briefly explore Columbia University’s storied history of supporting the veteran and military-connected community and highlight the best practices and resources that position Columbia as a leader in the student veteran support space.