Stigmatized Heroes: U.S. Veterans (SNF Paideia Program Course)

Catalog description

This course examines war, violence, health, U.S. history, and criminal justice. Over the last half century, the United States has come to lead the world in the size and influence of both its military and its criminal justice system, but despite our prominence in these areas, we have little understanding of people who live at the intersection of these influential institutions—justice-involved veterans. Students will have in-person dialog with both official and lay experts, including clinicians, combat veterans, psychologists, chaplains, and incarcerated people. The course includes field trips to the Veterans Affairs hospital and a maximum-security state prison. Healing from violence is a central theme of the course. Students will learn from those who have personally survived and coped with trauma and violence. Two innovative approaches are closely studied: Restorative justice and community-based interventions for “moral injury.” These approaches use, among other things, dialog and relationships to foster recovery and reintegration of health. As a Paideia course, we will emphasize the closing of social distance between disparate groups—such as Penn students and military service members—through dialog and understanding. As Bryan Stevenson has said, “we cannot create justice without getting close to places where injustices prevail. We have to get proximate.”