Tuesday, September 9, 2014
Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7 p.m.
Panelists:
Wendy Moffat, professor, Dickinson College
Dominique Laurent, professor, Dickinson College
David Commins, professor, Dickinson College
Crystal Moten, professor, Dickinson College
Douglas Mastriano, professor, U.S. Army War College
In commemoration of the centennial anniversary of the start of World War I, this panel discussion will explore the consequences of this world-shattering event from multiple and diverse perspectives in an effort to better understand the impact that international conflicts can have on the social, economic, cultural, ethnic, and political dimensions of human life.
This event is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues.
Biographies (provided by the participants)
Wendy Moffat, professor of English at Dickinson College, is the author of the award-winning biography A Great Unrecorded History: A New Life of E. M. Forster ( 2010.) A scholar of 20th century British and American culture, she is writing a dual biography of the psychiatrist Dr. Thomas Salmon and the war correspondent Elizabeth Shepley Sergeant in World War I.
Dominique Laurent began teaching at Dickinson in the fall
of 1995. He has taught all classes in the French program, including senior seminars such as “America in the Eyes of the French,” “France between the Wars,” and “The French Press.” He also teaches First Year Seminars (“The Great War” and “America in the Eyes of the World”). He directed the Toulouse Program from 1997 to 1999 and has served as department chair on three occasions. His research focuses on the image of America in the French press. He is currently working on the analysis of Woodrow Wilson’s image in the French press during the Paris Peace Conference (December 1918-June 1919).
David Commins is a professor of history and the Benjamin Rush Chair in the Liberal Arts and Sciences (1987) at Dickinson College. His teaching interests are in modern Middle Eastern history with an emphasis on Islamic thought and political movements. His most recent book is The Gulf States: A Modern History. A new publication, Islam in Saudi Arabia, will be available later in 2014. His other books are The Wahhabi Mission and Saudi Arabia, Historical Dictionary of Syria, and Islamic Reform.
Crystal M. Moten is a 20th century United States historian 
with specialties in women’s/gender history and African American history. Her research examines black women’s struggles for economic justice in the 20th century urban north. Currently, she is working on manuscript which examines the history of black women’s economic thought in the post World War II industrial city of Milwaukee, WI.
Colonel Douglas Mastriano Ph.D. is director of Theater Intelligance at the U.S. Army War College. A native of New Jersey, Colonel Mastri
ano joined the faculty of the U.S. Army War College in June 2012 and teaches in the Department of Military Strategy, Planning, and Operations. He earned a Ph.D. in history in 2013 from the University of New Brunswick, in Fredericton, Canada.
The son of a career US Navy man, Colonel Mastriano was commissioned in the United States Army in 1986. He began his career on the Iron Curtain with the 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment based out of Nuremberg, Germany. While serving along the East German and Czechoslovakian borders, he participated in the end of the Cold War and after this, deployed to Iraq for Operation Desert Storm. Here, his regiment led the main attack against Saddam’s elite Republican Guards. Having survived several close calls by God’s grace, he subsequently served in tactical, operational and strategic levels that included assignments in the Pentagon, the 3rd Infantry Division “Rock of the Marne,” and U.S. Army Europe (USAREUR) Contingency Plans. His most recent assignment was four years in NATO Land Headquarters in Germany, from where he deployed three times to Afghanistan. While in Afghanistan, he served as the director of the ISAF Joint Intelligence Center, with eighty soldiers from 18 NATO and non-NATO nations. After twelve moves, and living twelve years outside of the United States over the past twenty-five years, Colonel Mastriano is currently serving as faculty at the U.S. Army War College.
Doug is a military historian, a graduate of the Advanced Military Studies “Jedi” Course (School of Advanced Air and Space Studies (SAASS) and has a Ph.D. in history, master’s in military operational art and science, master’s in strategic intelligence, master’s in airpower theory, a master’s in strategic studies and a bachelor’s degree in history. Doug led the effort to locate the spot where Alvin York in 1918 was awarded the Medal of Honor for eliminating a machinegun nest, and captured 132 Germans. Doug’s efforts were successful, with his work being endorsed by U.S. and French authorities. He led, planned and organized the construction of a five kilometer historic trail, replete with monuments and historic markers in the Argonne Forest, France for all visitors to walk where Sergeant York fought. His website www.sgtyorkdiscovery.com has details and maps. Doug’s book, Alvin York: a New Biography of the Hero of the Argonne, will be published in March 2014.
He is married to Rebecca (Stewart) of Sharpsville, PA. Their son Josiah is an Eagle Scout, recipient of the Duke of Edinburgh Bronze and Silver Awards and the Canadian Chief Scout Award.