Events

This week we mark 20 years since the most devastating terrorist attack on American soil. At the same time, we reckon with the end to the campaign in Afghanistan, America's longest war and the first and last waged as a component of the War on Terror that formed the centerpiece of America's response to attacks of 9/11. These occasions present an opportunity to reflect on ways in which the events of 9/11 and the War on Terror have shaped or misshaped America's foreign policy and domestic politics for the last 20 years. 

 This panel discussion brings together a group of Sarah Lawrence faculty from diverse disciplinary backgrounds to share their reflections on an important range of issues. Was the War on Terror won or lost, or was it even the kind of campaign that permits of victory or defeat? Are terrorist groups organized under the banners of Islam and Jihad, as well as other kinds of terrorist threats, weaker or stronger today as a result of these campaigns? Do they present a central threat to America's security or core strategic interests? What can we learn from the ways in which our government and military conducted wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as Syria and Libya and other theaters, that might help us to orient future foreign and military policy? What were the opportunity costs of concentrating foreign policy and military resources on this War as the Cold War ended, China began to emerge as a global power, climate change took hold, new technologies created novel vulnerabilities, etc.? Finally, what effects have the attacks of 9/11 and the War on Terror had on the domestic politics of America and other societies? Faculty panelists include Matthew Ellis, History; Philipp Nielsen, History; David Peritz, Politics; Viji Seshadri, Writing; Mark Shulman, History; and Frederic Smoler, Literature.

REGISTER HERE

This in-person event is open to current students, faculty, and staff. Other members of the SLC community are welcome to view the event on Zoom by registering here.

Carolyn Ferrell '84 is the author of the novel, Dear Miss Metropolitan, and the short-story collection, Don’t Erase Me, which was awarded the Art Seidenbaum Award of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize program, the John C. Zacharis Award given by Ploughshares, and the Quality Paperback Book Prize for First Fiction. She has also received grants from the Fulbright Association, German Academic Exchange (DAAD), City University of New York MAGNET Program, and National Endowment for the Arts. Ferrell’s stories have ​been anthologized in the 1994, 2018, and 2020 volumes of Best American Short Stories and The Best American Short Stories of the Century, among other places​.She teaches writing at Sarah Lawrence College and lives in New York with her husband and children. 

Kathleen Hill until recently taught in the MFA Program at Sarah Lawrence College. Her novel Still Waters in Nigerwas named a Notable Book of the Year byThe New York Times, Los Angeles Times,andChicago Tribune;the French translation,Eaux Tranquilles, was shortlisted for the Prix Femina Etranger. Who Occupies This House, a second novel, was named an Editors’ Choice atThe New York Times. Her work has appeared inBest American Short Stories, Best Spiritual Writing, Pushcart Prize XXV,andThe Pushcart Book of Short Stories. Her recent memoir,She Read to us in the Late Afternoons, received the Silver Nautilus Award.