Dale Center for the Study of War and Society
POW/MIA Postdoctoral Research Fellow
The Dale Center for the Study of War & Society at the University of Southern Mississippi is proud to be one of a select number of institutions in the country asked to host a two year post-doctoral research fellowship in collaboration with the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) of the Department of Defense. The USM DPAA Research Partner Fellow serves as a researcher and local-resource research coordinator between the DPAA, the Dale Center at the University of Southern Mississippi, and other individuals and organizations involved in the study of military history, to develop historical and archival research concerning the more than 80,000 Americans still missing from military conflicts dating back to the 1940s, including World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Cold War, the Gulf Wars, and other recent conflicts. Implementing the “Hub and Spoke” research concept created by the DPAA, the USM DPAA Research Partner Fellow utilizes the scholarly resources at Southern Miss and surrounding archives, libraries, and museums and connects with external entities and individuals to conduct research and analysis to support DPAA’s ongoing mission to account for missing military personnel. The Fellow also works on establishing a national network that connects the DPAA with volunteers, researchers, and organizations that can help it accomplish its mission.
For news about the latest research conducted by DPAA Researchers, CLICK HERE.
For more information about the DPAA’s Mission and resources, CLICK HERE.
Current Fellow:
Dr. Joshua Shiver (2020-2022) Email
USM DPAA Research Partner Fellow
Dr. Shiver studies eighteenth and nineteenth-century U.S. military history with an emphasis on the individual soldier’s psychological and emotional experience of war. In 2020, he received his PhD from Auburn University in Auburn, Alabama and holds a master’s degree in history from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington and a bachelor’s degree in history from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Before coming to USM, Dr. Shiver taught at Auburn University, published numerous articles in academic journals, and served in a variety of public history roles, including working as an intern at the renowned National Infantry Museum at Fort Benning in Columbus, Georgia. Dr. Shiver is currently working on a book examining the individual Civil War soldier’s experiences of war. Some of Dr. Shiver's assignments for the DPAA focus on research for World War II underwater recovery operations and a nationwide project to gather photographic evidence about missing service personnel from local sources.
Past Fellows:
•Dr. Jeremy Maxwell (2017-2019)
Dr. Maxwell researches 20th century U.S. military history, social and political history, and the history of race and ethnicity. He received his PhD in history from Queen’s University in Belfast, Ireland in 2016. Dr. Maxwell’s first book, Brotherhood in Combat: How African Americans Found Equality in Korea and Vietnam, was published in the Campaign and Commanders Series with Oklahoma University Press in 2018.
