Floods and earthquakes, wars and famines, engineering failures and economic collapses — these frightening events seem to define modern life. We name them “disasters.” But what makes a disaster different from other periods of time? In a freewheeling conversation, two leading scholars in the field of disaster studies will consider events in Connecticut history and beyond, thinking out loud together about why some kinds of bad news are considered disasters while others are not, and what difference it makes.

Andy Horowitz is the Connecticut State Historian and an Associate Professor of History at UConn. He is the author of Katrina: A History, 1915–2015 (Harvard University Press, 2020), which won the Bancroft Prize in American history. Jacob A. C. Remes is a clinical associate professor of history at NYU’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study, where he directs the Initiative for Critical Disaster Studies. He is the author of Disaster Citizenship: Survivors, Solidarity, and Power in the Progressive Era (University of Illinois Press, 2016). Together, Remes and Horowitz edited Critical Disaster Studies (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2021).

This is the first event in our 2024 Woodward Lecture Series. This year we explore the concept of disasters in history. Later in 2024, we will offer programs that consider the long term impacts of two disasters with long-term impact in Connecticut: the 1944 Hartford Circus Fire, and 2017’s Hurricane Maria, which devastated Puerto Rico and sent thousands of survivors to seek refuge in Connecticut.

Tickets:
$15 General Admission
$10 Members
FREE for Connecticut Museum NARM members and above

Questions? Contact Natalie Belanger, Adult Programs Manager, at nbelanger@connecticutmuseum.org.