Benjamin Schrader

While in the Army, I was a 19D Calvary Scout. My platoon was tasked as the batallion QRF while in Kosovo and Iraq. It was a high paced action which I became acoustomed to, but I learned a lot about myself and about the world while in the military. I was once a very conservative republican, but the more I experienced, the more I realized that I had a very limited view upon the world, and I soon became very liberal. I started paying attention to what was being said and the actions of the US government. I began to question everything I once knew and everything that was presented to me by my chain of command and the media. When I got out of the military in May '05 I became active in the peace movement and decided to return to school. I enrolled to Colorado State University, where I double majored in Sociology and Political Science. I studied these two fields in order to get a better grasp upon my experience. I was heavily involved on and off campus in promoting social justice. I then completed my Masters in Ethnic Studies at Colorado State. I then went to the University of Hawaii to get a PhD in Political Science. My work focuses on veteran activism. I am currently doing a postdoc at Central European University in Budapest Hungary.