I suppose I am still in process of reintegration to society after PhD work, never completed, at UNC Chapel Hill in Sociology, and I know several of folks you cite. As a “not-conventionally-employed” male, I feel problems of masculinity and trauma of veterans are intense special case of more general problem of reformulating identity after trauma in an anti-hegemonic way in our time. Regarding the aesthetic, performative strategy, I must say that while the Swords to Plowshares Belltower initiative which I am currently pursuing (see website) is very intentional at a political/ideological level, I can’t help but be aware of gendered and psychic resonance of publicly erecting a shimmering tower in various places that all kinds of people make inscriptions on! Nonetheless, I feel that its ephemeral nature — the fact that it is a phallic monument, but not granite and bronze with inscriptions chosen by a few powerful, nationalist men, but with inscriptions that blow in the wind added by a multitude of diverse people, makes it something of an “anti-monument” and expressive of an emerging amorphous gender identity and (I hope) post-nationalist, less militarist culture. Writing this makes me wonder whether I am moving toward reintegrating “academic” into my identity after breaking with it, but maybe as “public intellectual” (and I hope accessible) rather than trapped in an ivory tower.