August 15, 2025
Dear Campus Community,
I am pleased to announce Dr. Ian Isherwood ’00, Associate Professor of War and Memory Studies at Gettysburg College, as our new Director of the Civil War Institute (CWI).
Building upon the extraordinary legacy of our late colleague and friend, Dr. Peter Carmichael, Dr. Isherwood brings a unique historical perspective to the position, given his contributions to both Civil War Era Studies (CWES) and Interdisciplinary Studies, as well as the exceptional mentorship he’s provided to Gettysburg students—many of whom have gone on to pursue careers in academia, education, security studies, the military, and in public history.
Dr. Isherwood began his full-time career at Gettysburg College as Assistant Director of the CWI in 2012, where he taught in the CWES program and mentored students in the CWI Fellows program. Dr. Isherwood also worked to establish the CWI’s early digital history and social media presence and edited the institute’s blog, The Gettysburg Compiler.
From 2020 to 2022, Dr. Isherwood served as First-Year Seminar Program Director. More recently, he was selected as the Harold K. Johnson Chair of Military History at the United States Army College and taught history in the Department of National Security and Strategy.
Dr. Isherwood is an active scholar in the field of First World War Studies and in the history of war more generally. He has published two single-author books: Remembering the Great War: Writing and Publishing the Experiences of WWI (2017) and The Battalion: Citizen Soldiers at War on the Western Front (2024). He is currently working on a book concerning the politics of commemoration from the Civil War to the Global War on Terror tentatively entitled Remembering America’s Wars.
Dr. Isherwood looks forward to expanding student-centered opportunities in the study of the Civil War era and public history through the CWI. He will begin as CWI Director on August 25. Please join me in congratulating Dr. Ian Isherwood on his new role.
Sincerely,
Jamila Bookwala
Provost