Jason A. Higgins, Ph.D
@jasonhiggins.bsky.social
Author. Editor. Historian. Prisoners after War: Veterans in the Age of Mass Incarceration (UMass Press) Digital Scholarship Coordinator Virginia Tech Press; Assistant Professor. My views don’t reflect my employer. https://shorturl.at/HpPO7
Rest in peace to John Ketwig, Vietnam veteran and author of ...And a Hard Rain Fell. It was an honor to get to know John. He talked with my students at VT, reviewed my book, and participated in my NEH Summer Institute, where he talked about the war, memorialization, why he joined the VVAW.
I am looking forward to writing and researching this summer. I’ll hide away from humans for a while and do what I got my Ph.D to do.
#NewPublicationAlert Dissidents: Veterans Speak Out for Justice is a peer-reviewed, digital humanities project published by Virginia Tech Publishing and Press, based on oral histories with veterans. dissidents.vt.domains/veterans
If you're interested in the environment and Oral History, you do not want to miss this conversation with authors Stephen Sloan and Mark Cave on Thursday, April 23 at 3:30 eastern, presented by the Oral History Association's Publications Committee. Register below: oralhistory.org/2026/03/17/o...
OHA Publications Committee Presents: A Conversation with Authors Mark Cave & Stephen Sloan - Oral History Association
The Oral History Association Publications Committee invites you to a virtual panel with authors Stephen M. Sloan and Mark Cave discussing their co-edited book
oralhistory.org
Happy voting day in Virginia, aka a temporary moratorium on the endless mail and media propaganda.
A Newly Discovered Recording Lets You Hear Delta Blues Legend Robert Johnson in Stunning Clarity
A Newly Discovered Recording Lets You Hear Delta Blues Legend Robert Johnson in Stunning Clarity
Great swathes of rock music since the nineteen-sixties would never have existed, we're sometimes told, were it not for the recordings of Robert Johnson. Certainly the likes of Keith Richards, Eric Cla...
openculture.com
The bicentennial in 1976 was a golden age for investment in U.S. public history projects and the humanities. The federal government provided generous funding to do the work of American history. Today, on the 250th, the humanities are being gutted and history censored. #talkabouthumanities
This week: US foreign policy and imperial violence in the Cold War. The discussion will be imformed by @kimatiwagner.bsky.social's critiques as well as that of other southeast and east Asian scholars. To be paired with @jasonhiggins.bsky.social's brilliant history.
Christopher Deutsch@drchrisdeutsch.bsky.social · 8mo agoMy graduate readings this semester, minus Brownell's 24/7 Politics (Princeton has a silly desk copy system that I had a tough time navigating but enroute now). The course is recent US history.
I am honored that #PrisonersAfterWar won the Sturm Research Excellence Award, from the Kappa Phi Beta, Mu Chapter of Virginia. This is a university-wide award at Virginia Tech that encourages and rewards scholarship with a significant appeal to an educated audience beyond a narrow scholarly field.
#CoverReveal Coming soon from Virginia Tech Publishing, "Dissidents" is a peer-reviewed digital humanities project that features the stories of veterans who spoke out for justice. Through oral histories, it explores the anti-war movement and the experiences of Black, queer, and women veterans.
This guy steals all Nixon’s ideas. His threats are straight out of the Nixon’s “Madman Theory.” It did not work with Vietnam. It will not work with Iran. It’s like none of the lessons from the past 60 years of American war are ever learned.
It was a great pleasure to speak with Jacey Anderson, book review editor for the Oral History Review for OHR Extra! We discuss oral history, my book Prisoners after War, and forthcoming projects. (@umasspress.bsky.social) If you're interested check it out. oralhistory.org/2026/03/24/a...
Author Interview: Jason A. Higgins - Oral History Association
By Jacey Anderson, Book Review Editor for the Oral History Review
oralhistory.org
Glad to see this is "official." I look forward to accepting the award in Arlington, VA. Hope to see you there.
SMH Historians@smh-historians.bsky.social · 6mo agoCongratulations to John M. Kinder, winner of the Distinguished Book Award (Category: Distinguished) for World War Zoos: Humans and Other Animals in the Deadliest Conflict in the Modern Age (University of Chicago Press, 2025)
An incredible digital #OpenAcess collection of newspapers published by incarcerated writers within the U.S. prison system.
Shane Mulligan@shanem-editor.bsky.social · 6mo agoHere's an amazing digital open access resource from @jstordaily.bsky.social – the American Prison Newspapers Collection. Access over 18000 digitized pages dating back to 1880. The editors welcome submissions related to the collection. @prisonjournalism.bsky.social daily.jstor.org/about-the-am...
Recently, I sat down for an interview with my hometown friend and high school classmate, Tercero Munoz with Suite P Productions out of Hot Springs Arkansas. We talk about veterans, history, mass incarceration, and System of a Down. Check it out in the link in the comments.
And journal editors should never invite comment again from someone who submits an AI-generated peer review.
International Journal of Plant Sciences@ijpsjournal.bsky.social · 7mo agoFolks, the use of AI to write reviews is a clear violation of peer review ethics + it endangers the authors' intellectual property rights. Don't do it.
Added a new title to the reading list by journalist Wil Haygood. It joins a very short but excellent list of books on African American experiences during the Vietnam War.
I am humbled to announce that "World War Zoos" won the 2026 Distinguished Book Award from the Society of Military History. Thanks to everyone who believed in the book! share.google/G2gxOFSy2ZcF... @elisecapron.bsky.social @uchicagopress.bsky.social @tmennel.bsky.social
World War Zoos
A new and heartbreaking history of World War II as told through the shocking experiences of zoos across the globe. As Europe lurched into war in 1939, zookeepers started killing their animals. On S...
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I’ve been revising a digital humanities publication after some helpful and engaged peer-reviewers’ feedback. This has been an ongoing student-involved, community centered-oral history project that we started during my first year at Virginia Tech. I plan to share it at the NCPH/AASLH conference.
Reading “Until the Last Gun is Silent” by Matthew Delmont and let me tell you it’s a good time to be reading a book about the overlap between the anti-war and civil rights movements.
Job opening for a 2-year Postdoc in #OralHistory and Social Justice at Duke University: networks.h-net.org/jobs/69830/d...
Duke University - Chafe Postdoctoral Fellowship in Oral History and Social Justice | H-Net
networks.h-net.org
Today marks the second-year publication anniversary of Prisoners after War. I had no clue how anti-climactic publishing a book would be, so I thought I would put together a thread about the trickling effects of book publishing. Maybe it’ll be interesting to first-time authors.
Thrilled to finally be sharing my Densho blog post on disabled Japanese Americans incarcerated during WWII. #DisabilitySky #skystorians Glad it made it in time for #DayOfRemembrance #EO9066 #AcademicSky densho.org/catalyst/ask...
Ask a Historian: What were the Experiences of Disabled People during WWII Incarceration? - Densho: Japanese American Incarceration and Japanese Internment
In this new installment of our running “Ask A Historian” series, guest writer Selena Moon—a PhD student researching Japanese American disability history and working on accessibility in various realms—...
densho.org
Densho@denshoproject.bsky.social · 7mo agoDisability and the experiences of disabled people during the WWII Incarceration comprise a topic that is still largely overlooked and under-researched.
I literally wrote about this for @nursingclio.bsky.social! The draft included a section on hazing and the military in the 1990s, which conservatives opined was essential to being made into a man. (I originally bragged about my blood wings and E5 party.) nursingclio.org/2025/06/04/n...
Neither Marine nor Maggot: Full Metal Jacket and the Crisis of Masculinity
In October 2024, then-presidential candidate Donald Trump stood before his gathered rally attendees and made a promise: he would build a “Trump military” out of the supposed ruins that he claimed P…
nursingclio.org
Justin Baragona@justinbaragona.bsky.social · 7mo agoFox News is mad that Jack Nicholson's character was portrayed as the bad guy in "A Few Good Men," citing it as the start of the downfall of "masculinity" in America. "They villified him! Right there's where Hollywood started this." "Now there's too few good men! That's the problem!"
