The laughter, conversation and noise quickly died as the mics were switched on and the panelists, pulling at pens and fiddling with their clothing, began to speak.

An event titled “Doing Memory, Doing Justice” was held as part of Syracuse University’s 2016 Remembrance Week in Slocum Auditorium on Monday night. It was a microcosm of the phrase “Looking back and acting forward,” which is used by the SU Remembrance Scholars, said Farrell Brenner, a senior women’s and gender studies and citizenship and civic engagement double major.

Brenner is one of the 2016-17 Remembrance Scholars, who are devoted to upholding the memory of the 35 SU students who died in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988. Former Libyan leader Col. Muammar Gaddafi turned over two Libyan nationals for a trial over the bombings in 1999, and compensated the families of those who were killed in 2003.

Roughly 40 SU students and Syracuse residents participated in the event, which was hosted by the Remembrance Scholars and the SU Muslim Students’ Association.

The event was composed of a panel that touched on a range of different issues, including mass media’s impact on public perceptions of Muslims in the United States and the influence of both the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing and 9/11 attacks on different contemporary conversations in the country.

The panel, co-moderated by Brenner and Ahmed Malik, the Muslim chaplain for Hendricks Chapel, featured an SU professor Charisse L’Pree and Albany-based activist Lynne Jackson.

L’Pree is an assistant professor of communications in the S.I. Newhouse School of Communications and Jackson is the founder of Project SALAM, which is devoted to supporting Muslims and advocating for the end of “preemptive prosecutions.”

Remembering those who are lost, and a larger sociocultural understanding of why and how they are lost, are often framed as mutually exclusive conversations, L’Pree said during the event.

Brenner responded that the Remembrance Scholars remember both those who are lost and attempt to analyze broad sociocultural understandings, such as Islamophobia in the U.S.

“Our memorialization of Pan Am Flight 103 is connected to (conversations on) terrorism,” Brenner said in her introduction.

Both L’Pree and Jackson spoke about different examples of media biases that disproportionately affect Muslims. Jackson spent the majority of the discussion detailing her work in Albany, specifically referencing the Yassin Aref and Mohammed Hossain case and Project SALAM’s efforts to provide legal advocacy for Muslims.

“Preemptive prosecution … is a law enforcement strategy that was adopted after 9/11 to target and prosecute individuals and organizations whose beliefs, ideologies or religious affiliations raised concern for the governments,” Jackson said, explaining that one of her group’s main goals is to ensure “preemptive prosecution” is not used to try and jail Muslims for their religious beliefs.

The two women focused on their individual expertise — L’Pree on the media’s role in contributing to a public perception of a specific group or race of people and Jackson on post-9/11 terrorist prosecution — both emphasized the impact events such as the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing and 9/11 attacks have on the memory of a nation.

L’Pree and Jackson spoke together on separate issues for roughly an hour, before addressing audience question topics ranging from media bias to microaggressions.

“I think they brought up a lot of good points about the different groups of people that can be affected when acts of terrorism arise, whether it’s related to 9/11 or Pan Am,” said Emily Dang, a Remembrance Scholar and senior international relations and information management and technology double major.

“I honestly didn’t know exactly what was going to be touched upon tonight, and I think that’s the best thing,” she said.

Published on October 25, 2016 at 12:59 am

Contact Sam: sfogozal@syr.edu | @SamOgozalek