James Beneda

“The Morally Incoherent Indoctrination of the American Soldier in Iraq: An Institutional Theory of Traumatic Experience”

I take up an issue that most of us cannot help but see as a problem of individual psychology and restate it in terms of institutional politics and political ideologies. Starting from cognitive sociology and recent clinical research that reframes post-traumatic stress (PTSD) as ‘moral injury’, I argue that the traumatic experiences of American soldiers in the Iraq War resulted from flawed cultural and institutional indoctrination.

Friday Forum Winter 2015 Schedule

Fridays, 12:30 – 2:00pm
Humanities 1, Room 202

A weekly interdisciplinary colloquium series for sharing graduate research across the humanities. Join us for light refreshments and weekly presentations by your fellow graduate students.

January 15- James Beneda, Politics
January 22- Alex Moore, HAVC
January 29- Whitney Devos, Literature
February 5- Sophia Magnone, Literature
February 12- Andrei Tcacenco, History
February 19- Amanda Reyes, History & Consciousness
February 26- Keith Spencer, Literature
March 4- Laura Harrison, Sociology
March 11- Bristol Cave La-Costa, HistoryJ