Echoes of 9/11 in the NYU Classroom

Abstract

This paper will address the impact of 9/11 on a university campus classroom near Ground Zero. The effect on an NYU graduate Trauma course 8 years post 9/11 will be described. Dale & Alpert (2006) have addressed the impact in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 on NYU, and the healing process both within the course, in the Applied Psychology Department and in the NYU community. They described how the department, including both students and faculty, played a healing role for both the NYU community and it’s wider surroundings. Although other studies have addressed 9/11 trauma, or looked at the experience of other kinds of trauma in University settings, this paper will address the impact of 9/11 on a non-clinical group of students in a graduate classroom 8 years later.

The first week of class coincided with the anniversary of 9/11. This trauma course was geared to engage the students in connecting the theoretical material to the actual experience of trauma. Everyone spoke on this first day of his or her own personal connection to 9/11. Some were directly exposed or suffered profound traumatic loss on that day. This paper explores the possibility of enhancing coping by utilizing student’s own traumatic experience, while learning about trauma in a classroom setting. The pedagogical use of the student/healer’s own traumatic experience in the classroom, highlights a beneficial use of student’s own narratives of trauma in teaching.