The September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks that took the lives of nearly 3,000 people continue to affect virtually every aspect of our lives – from disaster response and homeland security to the ways we can better co-exist globally.
Over the past decade, Rutgers faculty and students have been at the center of original research and scholarship focusing on the implications of that tragic day. University scholars have researched, lectured, and written extensively on post-9/11 safety, security, environmental and health issues, as well as the rise of Islamophobia and the continuing national debate over religious freedom. Rutgers journalism students, who were youngsters on that ominous day, have tried to make sense of the vicious attacks by interviewing the children of those who did not survive.
We remember where we were on that clear, sunny morning when terrorists flew hijacked jets into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon and crashed into a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. We can’t forget the vivid news broadcasts now burned into our psyches. The hordes of individuals, fleeing lower Manhattan, engulfed in thick, black, billowing smoke. The tons of rubble and debris – where only a few minutes before stood two iconic towers that helped define the New York City skyline. And, most important, the hundreds of heroic men and women who sacrificed their lives to save others.
Rutgers researchers who lecture, write, and teach about 9/11 focus not only on the tragedy of the attack and how it has affected the region, nation, and world, but also on how we continue to cope with the aftermath.
Paul Lioy is director of exposure science at the Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute. In 2010, he published a book,
Dust: The Inside Story of its Role in the September 11th Aftermath, which examined how the terrorist attacks left New York City with an environmental disaster of epic proportions. Lioy began studying the disaster and government response shortly after the attacks. Many first responders, construction workers and nearby residents who breathed air full of aerosolized cement, glass, minerals, metals, and combustion soot contracted respiratory diseases that have become chronic health burdens. His book came out in paperback this year, with an epilogue that discusses how we are better prepared to respond to catastrophes.
John Farmer is dean of Rutgers Law School in Newark and the former senior counsel and team leader to the 9/11 Commission. He has lectured and written extensively on safety and security issues, spoken on panels at Harvard Law School, the University of Southern California, and Johns Hopkins University’s Paul Nitze School of Advanced International Studies. His articles on topics related to national security law have appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, USA Today and Star-Ledger. His 2009 book, The Ground Truth: The Untold Story of America Under Attack on 9/11, was named one of the most notable books in 2009 by the New York Times. His next book, with co-author Michael Bronner, on the evolution of the Obama administration’s terrorism policies, will be published in 2012 by Riverhead/Penguin Press.
Angus Kress Gillespie is a professor of American Studies in the School of Arts and Sciences in New Brunswick. His 1999 book, Twin Towers: The Life of New York City’s World Trade Center, examined how the buildings became a prestigious business address, a popular tourist destination, and a powerful symbol of New York City and the nation. Today he teaches a Byrne Seminar, "The Politics of Memory: Reimagining the World Trade Center,” in which he asks students to consider how the rebuilt space will be used by the public and what will it symbolize to the city and to the country. On September 16, he will lead a conference, Remembering 9/11, to discuss some of the most prominent issues facing the nation 10 years later.
Deepa Kumar is an associate professor of journalism and media studies at the School of Communication and Information and a critical studies scholar with expertise is Islam, the Middle East, and U.S. foreign policy. As an active member of the New York City Coalition to Stop Islamophobia, Kumar has lectured and written about the
anti-Muslim fervor that has shaped public opinion, particularly concerning the construction of a Muslim community center two black away from Ground Zero and has been interviewed by the British Broadcasting Company’s (BBC)
Newshour, broadcast around the world, about the anti-Muslim attitudes that have surfaced in the United States since the 9/11 attacks. She has written a book,
Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, that will be published by Haymarket Press in 2012.
Ronald Miskoff is an associate director of the Journalism Research Institute in the School of Communication and Information, Department of Journalism and Media Studies, who, along with part-time lecturer
Elizabeth Fuerst, created the
Rutgers 9/11 Journalism Project, funded by a New Jersey Press Foundation grant. This commemorative journalism endeavor has provided Rutgers journalism students – who were youngsters on the day of the terrorist attacks – the opportunity to interview the children, most of whom have never discussed their feelings publicly, of those who lost their lives that day. The first account appeared in the
Star-Ledger last month and other stories are scheduled to be published in newspapers throughout the state as the anniversary approaches.
Karima Bennoune is a professor of law and an Arthur L. Dickson Scholar at the School of Law in Newark who has been recognized for her extraordinary contributions to legal education, the legal system and social justice. This fall, in commemoration of the anniversary of 9/11, she is teaching a
seminar on terrorism and international law. Her article, “
Terror/Torture,” which addresses the issue of protecting human rights while countering terrorism, was designated one of the top 10 global security law review articles of 2008 by Oxford University Press. Her book about Muslim opponents of fundamentalism and terrorism is forthcoming from Norton in 2012.
Wojtek M. Wolfe is an assistant professor in the Department of Political Science at Rutgers-Camden. In 2008, he published a book,
Winning the War of Words: Selling the War on Terror from Afghanistan to Iraq, which examined how George W. Bush’s initial framing of the September 11 attacks provided the platform for the creation of long term public support for the War on Terror and established early public support for U.S. action in Iraq. Wolfe says the United States was able to claim a symbolic victory on the decade long War on Terror with the
killing of Osama Bin Laden.
The Rutgers community will commemorate the 9/11 anniversary with a week-long series of events ranging from panel discussions and remembrance ceremonies to art and music exhibitions and blood drives. Remembering 9/11, a conference sponsored by the Department of American Studies, will be held on September 16 in hopes of providing a platform to discuss some of the most prominent issues facing the nation 10 years later. Survivors, first responders, historians, and others in charge of keeping the memory of what happened at Ground Zero alive for future generations will participate.
