The Sharon Ritenour Stevens Prize was established in 2019 to honor the memory of and reflect the interests of this late Associate Editor of the Papers of George Catlett Marshall. It is awarded in annual competition to a scholar or editor working on women’s uniformed service in military conflict, women’s history, or military history—and particularly as a project may apply to documentary editing.

In this roundtable, three scholars with particular perspectives on women’s and military history discuss their approaches to projects heavily dependent upon various types of document sources. Each project exemplifies an interest of Sharon Ritenour Stevens, for whom the prize is named.

The above image of Sharon Ritenour Stevens was shared with the ADE courtesy of the George C. Marshall Foundation.

Moderator: Carol DeBoer-Langworthy, Past ADE president (2011-2012) and Senior Lecturer in Nonfiction Writing, Department of English, Brown University.

Presenters:

Kristen Lee Griffin is expanding her M.A. research on women’s admittance to the U.S. military service academies as part of a PhD program in women’s studies and military history. Currently she teaches history through the University of Georgia’s online system to undergraduates at the University of West Georgia.

Manaswini Ramkumar, a PhD candidate in International Relations at American University, consults archives in New Delhi, Pune, and Dehradun, India as background for interviews with former military commanders who fended off Indira Gandhi’s autocratic moves during the “Emergency” period of Indian history (1975-77).

William A. Taylor works on the history of the U.S.’ All-Volunteer Force (AVF) that came into existence in 1973, also bringing with it some implications for uniformed service by women and other-gendered citizens in military life. He is preparing a website and volume of narrative history with pertinent documents about this major change in U.S. culture and military history.

This event will be recorded and uploaded to the ADE Youtube Channel.