http://www.bu.edu/professorvoices/

The story features Andrew Bacevich, professor of international relations; Thomas Robbins, BU’s chief of police and executive director of public safety; Neta Crawford, professor of political science; Kecia Ali, professor of religion; Jack Beermann, professor of law; Hillel  Levine, professor of religion; Richard Cornell, professor of music and composition; Shahla Haeri, associate professor of anthropology; Joseph Wippl, professor of international relations; and Margaret Ross, director of behavioral medicine at Student Health Services.

Read BU Today’s complete 9/11 coverage here.

Andrew Bacevich, professor of international relations and history, and a retired Army colonel, can offer comment on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as the state of American power post-9/11.  He is the author of Washington Rules: America’s Path to Permanet War (2010).  He can be reached at 617-358-0194; bacevich@bu.edu. 

Stephen Prothero, professor of religion, can discuss the role religion has played in the 10 years since 9/11, including the state of Islam in the U.S. today.  He can be reached at 617-353-4426; prothero@bu.edu; Twitter: @sprothero. 

Kecia Ali, assistant professor of religion, can discuss the evolving state of Muslim/non-Muslim relations.  Contact Ali at 617-353-4465; ka@bu.edu.

Robert Zelnick, professor of journalism and former ABC News correspondent, can discuss media coverage of the attacks and the subsequent War on Terror.  He can be reached at 617-353-5007; bzelnick@bu.edu.

Nick Mills, associate professor of journalism and author of Karzai: The Failing American Intervention and Struggle for Afghanistan, can offer analysis on how U.S./Afghan relations have evolved since 9/11.  Contact Mills at 617-353-3492; nmills@bu.edu.

Christopher Daly, associate professor of journalism and author of Covering America, can discuss media coverage of 9/11 and the wars it spawned.  He can be reached at 617-353-4295; cdaly@bu.edu; blog: Journalismprofessor.com.

Neta Crawford, professor of political science, can discuss the “Costs of War” study which she co-directed.  Contact Crawford at 617-353-4040 or crawfor@bu.edu. 

Thomas Whalen, associate professor of social science and an expert on American politics and the American presidency, can offer comment on post-9/11 U.S. politics.  He is a regular contributor to PoliticoArena. He can be reached at 978-888-3131; tjw64@comcast.net.

Tracey Maclin, professor of law and an expert on Constitutional law, can discuss post-9/11 legal battles over rendition, wiretapping and torture.  He can be reached at 617-353-4688; tmaclin@bu.edu.

David Barlow, professor of psychology and psychiatry and founder of the BU Center for Anxiety and Related Disorders, can discuss post-9/11 terrorism-triggered anxiety and panic attacks.  He can be reached at 617-353-9610; dhbarlow@bu.edu.

Thomas Cottle, professor of education and a sociologist and licensed clinical psychologist, can discuss child and adolescent psychology and the effects of growing up in a post-9/11 world.  Contact Cottle at 617-353-6294; tcottle@bu.edu.

The attack resulted in the Pulitzer Prize-winning Boston Herald photograph now known as “The Soiling of Old Glory.”

Whalen can be reached at 978-888-3131 or tjw64@comcast.net.

“With the first year of its Sesquicentennial now under way (the official start is April’s anniversary of Fort Sumter’s bombardment), we’re reminded that our national memory of the U.S. Civil War has long been haunted by the problem of slavery. Despite some renewed suggestions to the contrary, most historians today would argue that slavery was, in fact, the single-most important factor that caused the Civil War.

“The 1860 election of Abraham Lincoln, the first president who had publicly championed an anti-slavery policy, prompted the secession crisis.

“Even a cursory look at the secession proclamations — issued by the states that eventually formed the Confederate States of America — reveals that the decision to secede from the United States was based largely on the desire to protect what Southerners sometimes called their “peculiar institution.”

“Yet, in the postwar era, as slavery became discredited and as white Southerners proclaimed more noble justifications for going to war, few wished to recall the desire to protect racial enslavement as a chief motivating factor.

“Even more, as the former foes in the conflict established a harmonious reunification — one that brought the brave and heroic soldiers of both sides together — talk of slavery drifted even further from the nation’s consciousness.

“And so when the aging veterans of the war came together at Gettysburg in 1913, they clasped hands across the stone wall that marked the high point of Picket’s Charge, and celebrated the passing of 50 years that had brought reunification of the two sections. But few, it any, spoke about the African-Americans who had been enslaved, who had fought for their own liberation, and who in 1913, lived in the segregated confines of a Jim Crow world.

“The question of slavery, and the continued oppression experienced by African-Americans in the 20th century, appeared at the edges of the discussion when Americans prepared to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Civil War in 1961. But with the nation just beginning to grapple with civil rights, the Civil War Centennial continued the tradition of keeping the slavery discussion separate from Civil War commemorations.

“As we launch Civil War Sesquicentennial activities starting in this new year, Americans have a unique opportunity to bring the discussion of slavery out of the shadows and onto the national stage.

“Even more, we have the chance to have a broad-ranging discussion about this central watershed in U.S. history.

“It should reflect on the many dimensions of the conflict, including the horrors of slavery, the triumph and limitations of emancipation, the devastations war brought to Northerners and Southerners — white and black — alike, and the enormous sacrifices made by Americans across both sectional and racial lines.”

Nina Silber is a Civil War historian and professor at Boston University. Silber serves on the Council of Scholars for the Coalition for the Civil War Sesquicentennial.