The Department of History in the AddRan College of Liberal Arts has been named a partner in the Department of Defense POW-MIA Accounting Agency’s (DPAA) Hub and Spoke program. The program is a national initiative dedicated to locating and identifying American servicemembers who remain unaccounted for or unidentified, from World War II through our most recent wars.
Through the partnership, TCU now hosts a postdoctoral fellowship that places early-career historians at the intersection of academic research and a critical national mission. These fellows conduct archival research, analyze wartime records and help connect DPAA with libraries, museums and local communities that may hold key information about service members who remain unaccounted for.
“DPAA is delighted to work with the scholars and resources of the TCU community," DPAA Partnerships and Innovation leader Jesse Stephen PhD said. "Building on TCU’s highly-regarded program in military history will accelerate the efforts of agency personnel to resolve difficult cases and honor our unaccounted-for and their families.”
“The Department of History is honored to have been selected to support the DPAA’s mission to account for missing service personnel,” Kara Dixon Vuic, LCpl. Benjamin W. Schmidt Professor of War, Conflict, and Society in 20th-Century America, said. “We look forward to fruitful interdisciplinary collaborations with other partners as we apply the skills of historians to DPAA’s search for the missing. This mission is personal for us, as 20 Horned Frogs are among the 80,000 American servicemembers who are still unaccounted for. We are honored to have a part in this important effort.”
This August, TCU welcomed its inaugural DPAA Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Matthew Kotowski. He will collaborate closely with DPAA analysts and field teams, while also engaging TCU students and faculty in research that bridges the classroom and real-world service.
By joining the Hub and Spoke program, TCU stands alongside a select group of universities advancing a mission that is both scholarly and deeply human: ensuring that those who served are not forgotten.
Inaugural Fellow (2025):
Matthew Kotowski, Ph.D., is the inaugural DPAA Research Partner Fellow at Texas Christian University, starting in the fall of 2025. Kotowski earned his bachelor’s degree in history from Providence College in Rhode Island, where he also earned his commission as an Army Officer, branch Quartermaster. As a Quartermaster and Logistics Officer, Kotowski completed training as a Mortuary Affairs Officer, performing those duties in subsequent assignments, including Afghanistan and Japan. He earned his master’s degree in international relations from Webster University while attending the Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. He completed his doctorate in security studies from Kansas State University after honorably separating from the Army with 13 years of active service and achieving the rank of Major. His areas of study include 20th-century U.S. military history, with a focus on logistics in the United States Indo-Pacific Command (INDOPACOM) theater, as well as contemporary Chinese political culture and historical memory. His dissertation focused on the political uses of historical memory by the communist Chinese paramount leaders. Kotowski has presented his work at national academic conferences. He has several publications, including most recently in the spring 2024 issue of the Journal of Chinese Military History.