Robert Slabey was a professor of English at the University of Notre Dame from 1964-1996. He taught popular undergraduate courses on Faulkner and the Southern literary tradition. During the 1980's, Slabey became particularly interested in the Vietnam War and began to teach and write about the literature and films emerging from the conflict. He visited Vietnam during the 1988-89 academic year as a member of the U.S.-Indochina Reconciliation Project. In 1993 he organized an international conference at Notre Dame which brought together historians, writers, artists, filmakers, journalists, psychiatrists, government officals, anti-war activists, and veterans from the United States and Vietnam. In 1996 papers presented at the Notre Dame conference were published in a book entitled "The United States and Vietnam From War to Peace".