Veterans’ Day Lecture to Examine Veteran Reintegration Challenges for Former Service Members
Assumption University will host a lecture by Professor of Human Services Gary Senecal, Ph.D., on American and NATO Veteran Reintegration: The Trauma of Social Isolation and Cultural Chasms, on Tuesday, November 9, from 7 to 8:30 p.m. in the Jeanne Y. Curtis Performance Hall on campus. The lecture is the fourth in Assumption’s Annual Veterans Appreciation Lecture Series and will also be available to view virtually on Zoom.
Prof. Senecal recently published a book co-authored with MaryCatherine McDonald, Ph.D., an assistant professor of philosophy and religious studies at Old Dominion University, that examines mental health issues endured among former American service members. The authors examined the reintegration process from active duty to civilian life in a series of articles but restricted their analysis to American veterans.
“We were inspired to begin this work when we became aware of the stark differences in PTSD diagnoses and in suicide rates between American veterans and our NATO allies in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars,” said Prof. Senecal. “We were interested in understanding experiences in American culture that make the reintegration process uniquely difficult,” he said.
The authors interviewed 40 veterans of the war in Afghanistan—20 American veterans and 20 veterans from NATO allies—and discovered a deep divide between military and civilian cultures in American society than in other NATO ally countries represented in the study. According to their research, American military members’ sense of identity plays a significant role in creating a military/civilian divide. Here, civilians are perceived as “other,” very much in contrast to their counterparts among the armed forces of NATO allies who view military service as an expansion or enhancement of their identities.
Prof. Senecal, who has been a member of the Army Reserves since 2013, joined Assumption in 2014. He has taught courses such as Psychiatric Rehabilitation, Human Disability Across the Lifespan, Client Assessment, Military Psychology-the Social Reintegration of Veterans, and Sports Psychology.