The Politics of Memory: Remembering Laborers, Women, and Italian Immigrants Through Public Monuments (April 11, 2024)

The Triangle Fire Memorial in Manhattan is the first labor memorial and one of only a handful of memorials to women in New York City. It was inaugurated in October 2023 to commemorate the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire, one of the worst workplace tragedies in American history. The fire took place on March 25, 1911 at a sweatshop right off Washington Square and caused the death of 146 workers, mostly Italian and Jewish young female immigrants. Even though the legal repercussions were mild for the factory owners, the fire became a key moment in the introduction of safety and health measures as well as in the formation of labor unions. The conversation with the co-designer of the memorial, Richard Joon Yoo, and the president of Remember the Triangle Fire Coalition, Mary Anne Trasciatti, will use the Triangle Fire Memorial, its genesis and impact, as the starting point of a discussion on the relationship between history, memory and public space, and the politics at work in building the past in the present. 

Guest speakers: Richard Joon Yoo (Pratt Institute) and Mary Anne Trasciatti (Hofstra University)
Moderated by Teresa Fiore (Inserra Chair in Italian and Italian American Studies, Montclair State University) and Benjamin Nienass (Political Science, Montclair State University)

Thur. April 11, 2024  6:30 pm (in person)
SBUS (School of Business) 101
MORE INFO and RESERVATION FORM

Organized and sponsored by the Inserra Endowed Chair in Italian and Italian American Studies in collaboration with the Department of Political Science and Law at Montclair State University, as part of (an extended) Women’s History Month.

Photo credit: Max Medley