Professor examines how 9/11 is fading from our memories
Course educates young students about 2001 attacks.
NEW BRITAIN, CONN. — Matthew Warshauer was lecturing on the Civil War at the Southington Public Library one September a few years ago when he looked outside and saw a banner not unlike thousands of others across the country: 9/11, We Will Never Forget.
But it got the Central Connecticut State University history professor wondering how long that sentiment would hold true.
“Here I am trying to remind people ... of literally the biggest conflict in American history, and nobody remembers it,” he said of his work related to the Civil War. “So it got me thinking about historical memory. How long will we remember (9/11)?”
It seems unfathomable to most Americans that they could forget the terror attacks that claimed nearly 3,000 lives one Tuesday in September. Years of memorial services, moments of silence and two wars in the Middle East have made discussion about 9/11 inescapable.
But many young Americans have no recollection of the day’s events or of the country’s early response. Most high school sophomores today were born after the attacks.
Even though they are too young to have any memories of Sept. 11, 2001, Warshauer argues that the generation after the millennials — people born between 2000 and 2020 — should be referred to as the 9/11 Generation.
“This is a generation that has been fundamentally shaped by the attacks and the American response,” he said.
In a presentation he’s scheduled to give at the Old State House in Hartford on Sept. 20, Warshauer lays out some of the things that generation has grown up with: the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, the downturn of the U.S. and world economies, partisan gridlock on foreign policy and the threat of Islamic terrorism.
“Even though the particulars of the event itself may not resonate with many younger people who didn’t live through it, certainly they’re living with the consequences of it,” said Bilal Sekou, a professor of political science at the University of Hartford who is joining Warshauer for a panel discussion after his presentation.
Sekou said his students today have grown up in a “security state,” with a color-coded threat level scale and where they have to take their shoes off to board a plane. Most have no recollection of pre-9/11 society.
“The world has just so fundamentally changed I don’t think they have the basis for making a comparison,” he said.
So, two years ago, Warshauer started teaching a course at CCSU called “9/11 Generation,” aimed at educating young students about the event.
Some students come to the course “with zero knowledge” of 9/11, he said.
“That’s been the most fascinating thing,” Warshauer said. “It dawned on me: In another two years, my students are going to have absolutely no emotional connection or memory of 9/11 at all.”