Spencerport native Shannon L. Granville, senior editor with the U.S. Army Center of Military History in Washington, D.C., is currently working and residing in Tokyo as a member of the 26th class of the Mansfield Fellowship Program. The one-year program, administered by the Maureen and Mike Mansfield Foundation with support from the U.S. Department of State, is a professional development opportunity for federal government employees and active-duty service members. The current group of 10 Fellows departed the United States in July 2022 for Japanese language training and a series of placements in Japanese government agencies. By working directly with their Japanese counterparts, Mansfield Fellows build connections between the U.S. and Japanese governments with the intent of using these connections to support the missions of their home agencies.
Shannon’s purpose for the Fellowship is to study the ways in which the Japanese government preserves and presents its national history, particularly military history. Her placements have included agencies in the Ministry of Defense; the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology; and the National Archives of Japan. Among her noteworthy experiences during the Fellowship, she accompanied a group of Japan Self Defense Force cadets on an educational training exercise to the remote island of Iwo Jima in order to study the history of the famous World War II battle. When she returns to the United States in July, she hopes to use the historical materials she has collected to contribute to scholarship about the history of the U.S. Army in post-war Japan.
A 2000 graduate of Spencerport High School, Shannon received undergraduate and graduate degrees in history from the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, and the London School of Economics and Political Science.
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