WWII focus of first 'Stories from Wartime,' in its 26th year
Racial reckoning is theme of series that invites veterans, civilians to share experiences.
Regis University’s Center for the Study of War Experience will open its 26th annual Stories from Wartime lecture series on Feb. 25 with a spotlight on the Tuskegee Airmen during World War II.
The semester-long class will examine the histories of African American citizenship and service during wartime. For the first class, Dani Newsum, daughter of the late Col. Fitzroy Newsum, a Tuskegee Airman, will be the guest speaker.
The presentations will be held at 6 p.m. on six Thursdays through the spring via Zoom. The sessions are free and open to the public. Learn more and sign up for one or more of the sessions at www.regis.edu/warexperience.
Offered every spring since 1995, Stories from Wartime is both a public event and a class offered to Regis University undergraduates. It’s mainly a collection of moderated panel discussions with war veterans and others affected by combat. The purpose is to grow understanding of the complexities of warfare and widen perspectives of what ordinary people do in war, and how these experiences affect them.
“This semester, the class is focused on the urgency of our own moment of racial reckoning as we examine histories of wartime service for those living with second-class citizenship,” said Regis historian Lauren Hirshberg, director of the Center for the Study of War Experience, which sponsors the class. “The class will examine war and wartime service amid the deep histories and ongoing legacies of white supremacy in the United States.”
The last public class — on April 29 — will allow students to share their research into the life and death of World War II officer Walter Springs, a Regis student whose life was tragically cut short by a white officer while preparing to serve his country. For more about Springs, please see the Fall/Winter 2020 issue of Regis University Magazine.
The Center for the Study of War Experience, a nationally recognized repository of personal war narratives and testimonies, collects and preserves oral history interviews with veterans and civilians who have been involved with or changed by modern war. Interviews are videotaped and digitally preserved according to professional standards of the Oral History field. The collection also contains personal war effects donated by civilians and veterans, including official military documents, photographs, diaries, letters, newspaper and magazine collections, and commemorative items. For more information about Stories from Wartime or the Center, visit www.regis.edu/warexperience or call 303.964.6020.