Chatter: 9/11 Memorialization with Marita Sturken

David Priess, Martia Sturken
Sunday, September 11, 2022, 12:00 PM

In this bonus episode of Chatter, David Priess talks with professor and author Martia Sturken about 9/11-related memorials, museums, and architecture.

Published by The Lawfare Institute
in Cooperation With
Brookings

In this bonus episode of Chatter, David Priess talks with professor and author Martia Sturken about 9/11-related memorials, museums, and architecture. Her research and writings have examined everything from visual culture to the connection between memory and consumerism, with much of her recent work addressing memory of the attacks on September 11, 2001 as both the battleground and the site for negotiations of national identity.

In this conversation, they talked briefly about various historical memorials and the purposes of such work before comparing and contrasting the 9/11 memorials around the country and those at Ground Zero, next to the Pentagon, and in Somerset County, Pennsylvania. They also discussed controversies surrounding the National September 11 Memorial Museum (commonly called the "9/11 museum"), including those about its gift shop and about human remains currently in the facility.

Chatter is a production of Lawfare and Goat Rodeo. This episode was produced and edited by Cara Shillenn of Goat Rodeo.

Podcast theme by David Priess, featuring music created using Groovepad. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Among the works cited in this episode are:

Memorials, Museums, and related sites:

The National 9/11 Pentagon Memorial

Flight 93 National Memorial

The National September 9/11 Memorial and Museum

World Trade Center Oculus

Empty Sky Memorial in Jersey City, New Jersey

Reflect 9/11 memorial in Rosemead, California

Vietnam Veterans Memorial

The Korean War Veterans Memorial

WWII Memorial

Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial

Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial

Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial

Books:

Terrorism in American Memory: Memorials, Museums, and Architecture in the Post-9/11 Era, by Marita Sturken

Tourists of History: Memory, Kitsch, and Consumerism from Oklahoma City to Ground Zero, by Marita Sturken

Tangled Memories: The Vietnam War, the AIDS Epidemic, and the Politics of Remembering, by Marita Sturken

Prosthetic Memory: The Transformation of American Remembrance in the Age of Mass Culture, by Alison Landsberg


David Priess is Director of Intelligence at Bedrock Learning, Inc. and a Senior Fellow at the Michael V. Hayden Center for Intelligence, Policy, and International Security. He served during the Clinton and Bush 43 administrations as a CIA officer and has written two books: “The President’s Book of Secrets,” about the top-secret President’s Daily Brief, and "How To Get Rid of a President," describing the ways American presidents have left office.
Marita Sturken is an American scholar, author, professor, and critic.

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