Service-Learning's Inconvenient Connection to Military Service

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session 9
  In Roundtable Session: Service and Support: Interrogating Structures of Engagement in Higher Education

Abstract

National service in the U.S. has two major strands: military service and community service. Despite both strands operating within higher education, they are often considered opposing efforts. In this paper, we focus on the mutually constitutive properties of military and community service, which have become particularly apparent under neoliberalism. Employing historical discourse analysis to review congressional records, legislation, and scholarship, we illustrate how the twin elements of military presence and calls for civic responsibility have intensified on campuses in recent decades. We argue that these interconnected components of national service have inhibited what could be more socially just visions for collective action.

Authors

• Colleen Rost-Banik, University of Hawaii

• Carmine Perrotti, Brown University