Milwaukee County War Memorial Center, Wisconsin, USA
September 2024 – August 2026
Talking with Monuments: Veteran Dialogues on Remembering is a 5-week public program that engages war memorials as powerful stages to recall and reflect on military service. Often, monuments tell one story, at the cost of omitting others. As a result, the experiences of diverse veterans and their stories become overlooked or forgotten. This ‘erasure’ can intensify veterans’ post-military reintegration challenges.
Five veteran leaders will attend advanced training to lead difficult discussions around the topics of status and belonging, heroism, representation, exclusion, remembrance, and impermanence. Moral injury will be thread that weaves these discussions together. We visit 5 memorial sites, with historical mini lectures covering the Civil War, WWI and II, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan, and Pre-colonial Tribal Wars. Participants enact paired poetry and comics at these sites, activating remembrance and expanding cultural narratives around who serves and the stories that are untold. Through these site visits and veteran-led conversations, we cultivate dialogues around military service, public representation, and moral injury.
Our aim is to acknowledge the stories that have not been told, or forgotten, and gain a deeper understanding of diverse veterans’ lives and service. 3 cycles of programming for veterans, veterans peer support specialists, and the public, will occur between September 2024 – August 2026.
PROJECT TEAM
Katinka Hooyer, PhD, project director, is a cultural anthropologist with 12 years’ experience developing community-engaged programming and research with veterans and moral injury. As project director for two previous NEH Warrior’s Path grants, Hooyer serves as project director, program/evaluation design lead, leader trainer/mentor, and responsible for qualitative evaluation, reporting/dissemination.
Leslie Ruffalo, PhD, statistical analyst and evaluator, is associate professor at MCW with experience implementing and evaluating multiple veterans’ outreach projects with VA and in Southeast Wisconsin.
Laura Johnson is a community program coordinator at MCW, Department of Family and Community Medicine with expertise in managing multi-partner, educational projects, and financial aspects of grant awards. Johnson is project coordinator.
Patricia Clason, MS is a Trauma Informed Instructor at UW-Milwaukee. She will provide advanced training in emotional intelligence and trauma informed facilitation for the Preparatory Training.
Paul Emmanuel is a Fulbright Scholar and artist specializing in memorialization. His work explores the way mental and physical landscapes interact in their construction of memories and identity. Emmanuel will provide Preparatory Training on memorials and how they work to construct stories and histories.
Sean Clark, MA, Army veteran, is an educator, director of programs at the War Memorial Center. He specializes in curriculum design, public programming of the War Memorial Center. He will provide historical overviews for each memorial site.
Bryan Rindfleish, PhD is an assistant professor of history at Marquette University. He is an expert and teacher of indigenous history of urban spaces and will lead the history lecture at the Indigenous Burial Mound in site (300 BC - 400 AD).
Otis Winstead is a veteran and President/CEO of Dryhootch Great Lakes, a veteran peer support organization. He initiated the design of the African American Memorial Wall and will provide history lectures for this site.
Zeno Franco, PhD is a scholar of heroism and clinical psychologist at Veterans Affairs Franco will provide an overview of heroism as it relates to memorialization and moral injury for our Preparatory Training.
Kyle Kummer: Kyle is our graphic designer and has worked with our team for 10 years doing veteran-led design including Warrior’s Path. Kyle will design all flyers, discussion guides and public facing reports.
Yolanda Medina: U.S. Marine Corps 1981-1985. Yolanda is the Executive Director of the Military and Family Resource Center at UW-Milwaukee and advises veteran students. She is part of the Female Veteran exhibit, I am not Invisible. Discussion leader.
Charlie Walton: U.S Marine Corps, 1968-1972. Charlie Walton is our elder, identifies as a Black Veteran, and is an experienced public speaker. He has 7 years-experience providing pastoral services through the Baptist Church serving the Milwaukee inner city. Discussion leader.
Carlos Munoz II: U.S. Army 2002-2019. Carlos is an active member of the Milwaukee Hispanic community, and the Director of Veterans Upward Bound at UW-Milwaukee, supporting veterans in higher education application and attainment. Discussion leader.
Daniel Kasza: U.S. Army 2003-2015. Dan is a community engaged researcher, and skilled public speaker, having presented at three national conferences. He is co-author of two peer reviewed articles on veteran engagement in programming and research. Discussion leader.
Vera Roddy: U.S. Air Force/Air Force Reserves, 1977-1992. Vera is the founder and leader of the Artful Warrior’s, a grass-roots peer-lead group, for veterans and community partners to connect in creative endeavors. Discussion leader.
Talking with Monuments is sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities