In Conversation: Brenda Berkman '73 and Patrick Wilz on Memory, Service, and Meaning

What does it mean to realize you’re standing inside a historic moment — not just witnessing it, but shaping it? Firefighter and 9/11 first responder Brenda Berkman ’73 joins Visiting Assistant Professor of History Patrick Wilz to explore what it means to be swept into the current of history, and how one makes sense of it afterward. Drawing on Berkman’s service on September 11th and her printmaking practice in its aftermath, the conversation turns to how we process, commemorate, and remember trauma — both personally and collectively.