Kieran selected for prestigious Army War College teaching fellowship

August 12, 2024

Dr. David Kieran of the Department of History, Geography & Philosophy will spend the 2024-25 academic year as the Harold Keith Johnson Chair at the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Based in the Department of National Security & Strategy, the chair is the college’s most prestigious visiting professorship. 

The War College’s Johnson Chair is a scholar-in-residence program for visiting professors to teach and conduct research on military history. It is named for Gen. Harold Keith Johnson, who served as the U.S. Army’s chief of staff from 1964 to 1968. Through the fellowship, visiting faculty teach graduate-level courses for selected military, civilian and international officers as they prepare for senior-level strategic leadership assignments and responsibilities.

"I'm both honored and humbled to be selected as this year’s Harold K. Johnson Chair,” Kieran said. “The Army War College is the most elite institution in U.S. professional military education. Its faculty is an exciting mix of highly accomplished civilian academics and career military officers, and they place a high value on cultivating historical mindedness among the students who will become global thought leaders in military strategy. I’m excited to have the opportunity to contribute to their development.”

Kieran joined the Columbus State faculty in 2022 as an associate professor and the Col. Richard R. Hallock Distinguished University Chair in Military History. His teaching and research focus on the Army’s organizational culture and how Americans, both within and outside the military, have grappled with the country’s involvement in the wars of the 20th and 21st centuries.

“For the 93% of us who have not served in the military, it’s incumbent on us as a matter of citizenship to examine the military’s role in society and the work that we ask our servicemen and servicewomen to do,” Kieran noted. “We must engage thoughtfully, respectfully and rigorously with our fellow citizens in and out of uniform about what that commitment to serve our country really means.”

Kieran has organized programs to connect students and the public with military, academic and policy leaders. These have included a two-day symposium in 2023 on the 20th anniversary of the Iraq War and a year-long series on the 70th anniversary of the Korean War armistice. This summer, he and other faculty led a study abroad excursion for students to South Korea to wrap up that year-long series.

As the Johnson Chair, Kieran will teach required senior-level foundational and theory courses in the fall, and an elective of his choosing in the spring. The fellowship will also provide Kieran time to conduct research and complete a book on the cultural transformation of the U.S. Army in the post-Vietnam era. His proximity to the United States Army Heritage and Education Center will be an asset to that effort.

When Kieran returns to his faculty role at Columbus State in the fall of 2025, he’ll apply his fellowship experience to benefit the university’s efforts to teach its military-connected students, who range from ROTC cadets and Captains Career Course active-duty officers to veterans and military dependents.

“I’m looking forward to bringing what I’ll gain from this fellowship back to Columbus State and applying it in the classroom as we partner with the Army to serve and train our nation’s armed forces,” he said.

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Media contact: Michael Tullier, APR, Executive Director of Strategic Communication + Marketing, 706.507.8729, mtullier@columbusstate.edu