Art-Based Activism: Gender & Labor in NYC (formerly WGSA 29004 - Shirtwaist Factory)

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 (of gender, class and race). Students will investigate the extent to which the memory and the significance of the fire have reverberated nationally and internationally in culture and politics for over a century. In addition to studying the Cornell University labor archives, students will study the representation of the fire in literary forms such as theatre, performance, 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.