Rural children’s responses to the Flight 93 crash on September 11, 2001.

Abstract

Few researchers have the opportunity to study children’s experiences in the days immediately following a disaster, especially in the case of terrorism. No investigations to date recount the experience of rural children on September 11, 2001. This paper describes recently discovered letters that 76 sixth graders in 2 nearby schools wrote days after terrorists crashed United Flight 93 into a field in rural Western Pennsylvania. Thematic coding revealed key themes in each set of letters. The letters from the school closest to the crash revealed children’s recollections of the day, coping strategies, and community pride. Letters from the school further from the crash reflected children’s gratitude and empathy for the recovery workers at the crash site, with fewer recollections of the day. Findings shed new light on the neglected issue of rural children’s reactions to terrorism and suggest new methods to document their unique perspectives, interactions, and roles in the days immediately following a disaster. This paper highlights the need for research on children’s letter writing in postdisaster situations.

Young tourists’ experiences at dark tourism sites: Towards a conceptual framework

“…As McCabe (2005: 103) observes, ‘to develop a meaningful engagement within the sociology of tourism with tourists, we will have to recognise the cultural and interactional contexts in which we engage with our subjects.’ Mindful of the complexity of these contexts in childhood, we first examined hundreds of archived tributes and post-visit comments authored by children and youth in two 9/11 sites, two Holocaust museum exhibits, and a medical history museum (Croom et al, 2018; Kerr and Price. 2018; Kerr et al,2016, 2017a, 2017b). The texts and artwork shed light on how children of different ages interpreted and reacted to death and dying.…”