Shirtwaist Factory

Catalog description

This course examines the Triangle Factory Fire of March 25, 1911 from multiple interdisciplinary perspectives, in the context of early twenty-century social history, and through the theoretical lens of intersectionality (race, class and gender). Students will investigate how the memory and significance of the fire have reverberated nationally and internationally in politics and culture for over a century. In addition to studying the Cornell University labor archives, and the Remember the Triangle Factory Fire Coalition archives, students will study representation of the fire in literary forms such as theater, performance pieces, poetry, interviews, family memoirs, and lyrics; as well as in documentaries, art exhibits, and other cultural products, including the annual commemoration of the fire in New York City.