In this seminar, Ed Linenthal will lead a discussion about difficult issues in public history based on his extensive experience with memorial sites and commissions and his several books about trauma and cultural memory. The discussion will focus on the civic functions of National Park Services history sites, the value of Holocaust studies, and “trigger warnings” in classrooms. Readings are pre-circulated via the QR code on the flier. 

Edward T. Linenthal is Professor Emeritus of History at Indiana University, Bloomington. He served as editor of the Journal of American History from 2005-2016. Linenthal has served as a Visiting Scholar for the National Park Service and was a member of the Flight 93 Memorial Commission. For several years he co-directed a Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History summer Teacher Seminar, “9/11 and American Memory,” at the National September 11 Memorial & Museum in New York. He also serves on an advisory committee for memorialization of those murdered in the July 22, 2011 terrorist attacks in Norway. He is the author or editor of seven books on U.S. history and memory, including Sacred Ground: Americans and Their Battlefields (1991); Preserving Memory: The Struggle to Create America's Holocaust Museum (1995); History Wars: The Enola Gay and Other Battles for the American Past (1996); The Unfinished Bombing: Oklahoma City in American Memory (2001); and The Landscapes of 9/11 (2013).

This event is co-sponsored by the Department of Religious Studies.