Media Advisory for Wednesday, September 9
Student Union Ballroom 4FL | 12:15–1:30 pm
Media RSVP to Linda.Pacheco@qc.cuny.edu
Queens College Presents the Panel Discussion, Tragedy, Trauma, and Transformation: The 9/11 Catastrophe 25 Years Later; Commemorative Exhibition is Also Planned
—College faculty to present on post-9/11 U.S. foreign policy, health effects on World Trade Center recovery and clean-up workers and area residents, and redevelopment of lower Manhattan and beyond—
What: James Vacca, distinguished lecturer in Urban Studies at Queens College, will moderate a panel presentation, Tragedy, Trauma, and Transformation: The 9/11 Catastrophe 25 Years Later, by Queens College faculty members. Topics include How Anger and Retributive Reactions to 9/11 Affected U.S. Foreign Policy, by Peter Liberman, professor and chair, Political Science; Effects on Those Who Cleared the Trade Center Site and Those Living Nearby as well as the WTC Health Program Established to Assist These Groups, by Steven Markowitz, professor and director, Barry Commoner Center for Health and the Environment; and How 9/11 Impacted the Redevelopment of Downtown Manhattan and Beyond, by Melissa Checker, professor and chair, Urban Studies. Queens College Interim President Elizabeth F. Hendrey will offer remarks. The panelist talks will be followed by a Q&A session.
Members of the public who RSVP HERE will receive a live stream link to the event during which they will be able to submit questions via the Zoom chat for the Q&A.
In conjunction with the panel presentation, the college’s Godwin-Ternbach Museum will open the exhibition, Memento Mori: 9/11 Twenty-Five Years Later. On view through November 30, 2026, the exhibition is centered on six oversized photographs of Tribute in Light (2002) that invite visitors to consider the enduring impact of 9/11 and the role of art in preserving personal and collective memory. Memento Mori aims to create a meditative space for reflection, remembrance, and education through artworks and archival materials, including books, magazines, ephemera, documentary photographs, digital prints, and works responding to 9/11.
Who: James Vacca has served as a distinguished lecturer in Urban Studies since 2018. He teaches courses on New York City politics, governing New York City, and urban politics and public administration, among others. A three-term New York City Council member from the Bronx, from 2006 through 2017, Vacca served as a member of the Council Leadership and the Budget Negotiation Team and as chair of the Transportation Committee, among other positions. He was a member of the 2019 NYC Charter Revision Commission that proposed rank choice voting, later approved in a voter referendum. Prior to his election to the City Council, Vacca served as district manager of Bronx Community Board 10.
Peter Liberman also serves on the faculty of the CUNY Graduate Center, where he teaches courses on international politics. His research has investigated resistance and collaboration under military occupation, nuclear proliferation, U.S. foreign policy opinion, and methods to strengthen undergraduates’ reading and analytical skills. More.
Steven Markowitz is a physician specializing in occupational and environmental medicine. Markowitz is also professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Queens College. He has conducted research on and medical monitoring of the World Trade Center Health Program. Since 2011, he has served on the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) World Trade Center Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee.
Melissa Checker researches environmental racism, environmental justice activism, the politics of urban sustainability, and contemporary environmental movements. She also serves on the faculties of the PhD programs in Anthropology and Earth and Environmental Sciences at the CUNY Graduate Center. Her book, The Myth of Sustainability: Environmental Gentrification and the Politics of Justice (NYU Press, 2020), won the 2020-21 Delmos Jones and Jagna Sharff Memorial Book Prize from the Society of the Anthropology of North America. More.
Background
Over 40 members of the Queen College community, including alumni, and loved ones of alumni and former employees, were lost on September 11, 2001; they are memorialized HERE.
Tribute in Light, created by artists Julian LaVerdiere and Paul Myoda in collaboration with architects John Bennett, Gustavo Bonevardi, and Richard Nash Gould, and lighting designer Paul Marantz, was first illuminated six months after the September 11, 2001, attacks. Its twin beams have since become an enduring symbol of remembrance, resilience, and renewal. Donated to the Godwin-Ternbach Museum in 2021, the six photographs, along with eight related works, are now part of the museum’s permanent collection.
The Memento Mori exhibition also features materials from MNEMONIC: A 9/11 Memorial Exhibition, organized at LaGuardia Community College in 2002. Media components include Lotus Cusp, created and produced by Professor Adele Shtern, and 102 Minutes That Changed America, produced by Siskel/Jacobs Productions for the History Channel. Please click HERE to learn more.
-30-