Heritage That Hurts

Memorial sites sites of dark tourism are vernacular spaces that are continuously negotiated constructed and reconstructed into meaningful places. Using the locale of the 9/11 tragedy Joy Sather-Wagstaff explores the constructive role played by tourists in understanding social political and emotional impacts of a violent event that has ramifications far beyond the local population. Through in-depth interviews photographs graffiti even souvenirs she compares the 9/11 memorial with other hurtful sites--the Oklahoma City National Memorial Vietnam Veteran's Memorial and others--to show how tourists construct and disperse knowledge through performative activities which make painful places salient and meaningful both individually and collectively.