RESEARCH PARTICIPANTS REQUIRED Veterans and Post-war Political Discourse
 
My name is Shichern Tay and I am a research student at University of Aberdeen funded by Elphinstone PhD Scholarship programme. My research focuses on British veterans’ experiences of political discourse. I am interested in interviewing veterans, especially those who served in Iraq from 2003 to 2011. I am going to focus on veterans’ lived experiences of Tony Blair’s statement on Iraq war and how they make sense of their experiences.  It is anticipated that the interview will provide a greater understanding about how the political discourse was experienced, the facilitating and impeding influences that affected the experiences, and what meaning veterans gave to each element of their experiences. In particular, this dissertation explore, in depth, how veterans experienced the statement and the connections between how it was experienced, remembered, interpreted and reconstructed.  Whilst existing research has established that most veterans feel strongly about political discourse related to war, there has been little investigation of how veterans experienced Tony Blair’s statement issued on 6 Jul 2016. The lack of study in this area does not match the importance nor reflect the major implications the veterans have on this statement. Thus, there has been a gap in knowledge of experiences of veterans, and their perspectives have not been paid adequate attention. My research is set out to extend the limited understandings of the experiences and perspectives of veterans. I believe that through exploring veterans’ experiences, that particular political statement and the underlying dynamics can be better understood.  I am writing to ask whether you would be interested in learning about my research or take part in my research study. Participation is voluntary and confidentiality will be ensured. If you are interested, I can be reached shichern.tay@abdn.ac.uk and 07843106882. Your experiences will mean a lot to my research and any such help would be most appreciated. Thank you!