Eddie A. Bruce-Jones

Eddie A. Bruce-Jones earned a B.A. in Social Anthropology and Afro-American Studies from Harvard University in 2002. In August, 2005, he earned a Magister Artium (M.A.) in European Ethnology at Humboldt-Universität and North American Studies at the Free University. His Magister thesis was entitled "The Politics of Speech, Silence and Survival: HIV Risk-minimization in Berlin Prisons." His academic interests include: human rights, strategizing and negotiating concepts of race, gender and sexuality and culture, trans-nationalism/border crossing and multicultural democracy. Eddie currently studies law at Columbia University School of Law in New York City.

Surviving September 11th or Snapshots in the Dark?
A Critical Consideration of Two Professional Photographs as Portraits of Denial

Photographs, film footage, and other forms of documenting historical events help enable us not only to position history in our present but also to rearticulate historical narratives, imbibing them with new meaning. The tragedy of September 11th, the most documented historical event in American history1, has repositioned American identity within a number of conflicting discourses and narratives. It is the conflicts among these discourses and narratives that enrich our understandings of American history and identity, as they articulate a power imbalance and an otherwise silenced perspective on the American ideals that regularly assume the central discourse on American identity. The framing of September 11th in images, much like the framing of September 11th as a discursive narrative, was and continues to be a conscious, interpretive portrayal of events and not just a scientific documentation of facts. It is our task as historians, social scientists, journalists, and scholars to view these documents critically, to offer new insights as to how images related to the events might be used to reflect the past and to reconstruct current discourses as particularly American.

held at: Picturing America. Domestic and Global Aspects of US Media Culture, May 19-21, 2005