The September 11 attacks, or “9/11,” was a coordinated series of terrorist attacks on the United States, involving hijacking and crashing commercial airliners into prominent buildings on September 11, 2001. Most notably, the attacks involved the destruction of the original World Trade Center office complex in New York City, after its two main towers (the “Twin Towers,” two of the world's tallest buildings) were each hit by an airliner and collapsed. Another airliner struck the Pentagon, the building housing the U.S. Department of Defence, in Washington D.C., while another crashed into a field in rural Pennsylvania after passengers on board the aircraft attempted to stop the hijacking. The September 11 attacks were orchestrated by the militant Islamist organization al-Qaeda, and devised, most notably, by al-Qaeda minister Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and founder Osama bin Laden. 9/11 followed a series of other attacks by al-Qaeda in the late 1990s, each intended as retaliation against U.S. influence and intervention in the Middle East and the Islamic world more broadly. 9/11 is, as of 2024, the deadliest terror attack in history, killing nearly 3,000 people.

The September 11 attacks are notable for their extraordinary impact on American and world politics, society and culture. The attacks mark the beginning of the American “war on terror,” and were cited as a pretext for the series of invasions the United States undertook in the Middle East in the 2000s through to the 2020s. The impact of 9/11 was most painfully and immediately felt in New York City. Beyond the immediate deaths, the collapse of the World Trade Center caused carcinogenic debris to spread over Lower Manhattan, causing long-term illness and death in people who lived and worked in the area, and particularly for the firefighters and police officers tasked with rescuing survivors from the debris. The redevelopment of the World Trade Center site, where many additional buildings were taken down after suffering structural damage from debris, was highly politicized and did not begin until 2006. It is still incomplete as of 2025.

The New School, being primarily located in Lower Manhattan in New York City, was likewise enmeshed in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks. The Fall 2001 semester was due to start on September 12, 2001, and the school had newly opened a dormitory in the Financial District of Manhattan, near the World Trade Center. The university president at the time, Bob Kerrey, had taken the position in February, and had spent much of his first semester on the job embroiled in a series of controversies, most notably over the revelation that a military unit he had commanded in the Vietnam War had killed, and allegedly deliberately targeted, civilian women and children. After the first plane hit the World Trade Center, Kerrey went to a hospital in Hackensack, New Jersey to be with his wife and his third child, Henry Kerrey, who had been born on September 10th.

The New School’s Provost, Elizabeth Dickey, held an open meeting on September 17th to discuss what resources the university could provide to community members in response to the attacks. The New School’s health insurance provider, then CIGNA, offered counseling, and the New School’s libraries compiled resources on terrorism, religion, coping and ethics for students, staff and faculty. The school also hosted seminars on how to volunteer to help those most directly affected.

Much of the academic programming in the year that followed, likewise, was a direct or indirect response to the attacks. As a select few examples among many 9/11 themed events held in 2001-2002, The World Policy Institute, then housed at the New School, hosted the panel discussion “Reconciliation Diplomacy: How To Overcome Historical Wrongs” in October 2001, and “The Post-September 11th World: Can the United Nations Deliver Peace?” in December. That same month, The Vera List Center for Art and Politics hosted a panel discussion titled “Artists Respond To Terrorism and War.” The New School, the division formerly called the Adult Division and later called the Schools of Public Engagement, offered a course and lecture series in Spring 2002 titled “Understanding September 11: Probing the Past and Looking to the Future.” The Robert J. Milano Graduate School of Management and Urban Professions also co-sponsored the forum, “Listening to the City: The Civic Alliance’s First CityWide Conversation About Rebuilding Downtown New York” in February 2002.

Sources: Dana Kennedy (2002). "Bob Kerrey, New New Yorker." The New York Times. May 5, 2002. Accessed July 23, 2024. https://www.nytimes.com/2002/05/05/nyregion/bob-kerrey-new-new-yorker.html

The New School (2001). New School Bulletin 2002 Spring Vol. 59 No. 3 [course catalog]. New School Course Catalog Collection. New School Archives and Special Collections. https://digital.archives.newschool.edu/index.php/Detail/objects/NS050101_ns2002sp

The New School (2001). Weekly Observer 9/28-10/5 [unprocessed]. New School Archives and Special Collections.

The New School (2003). 2001-2002 Annual Report: A Month-to-Month Look [unprocessed]. New School Archives and Special Collections.