Professional Announcements

Steve Estes, History, just recently completed "Ask & Tell: Gay and Lesbian Veterans Speak Out.” Drawing on more than 50 interviews with gay and lesbian veterans, Estes charts the evolution of policy toward homosexuals in the military over the past 65 years, uncovering the ways that silence about sexuality and military service affected the identities of gay veterans. These veteran voices--harrowing, heroic, and on the record--reveal the extraordinary stories of ordinary Americans, men and women who simply did their duty and served their country in the face of homophobia, prejudice, and enemy fire. University of North Carolina Press is publishing "Ask & Tell" in May of 2007.

David McCuan, Political Science, has accepted a 2007-08 Academic Fellowship from the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies. McCuan will participate in an educational program in Israel from May 26 to June 6 in which the effects of terrorism on democratic societies will be explored. McCuan will participate in various activities including field trips to military, police, and immigration facilities in Israel. The goal of the program is to explore how democratic states try to combat the threat of terrorism. The program produces independent analyses of global terrorist threats that explore the historical, cultural, philosophical, and ideological factors that drive terrorism and threaten the individual freedoms guaranteed within a democratic society. Later in June, McCuan attends a one-week workshop at Illinois Wesleyan University on resources and planning for a general education course dealing with "All Things Nuclear" and "The Legacy of Hiroshima and Nagasaki."