Twenty years ago, a new history professor was just getting their bearings on campus at the University of Vermont and teaching one of their first courses on Middle East history. In the Hudson Valley, a future international relations and counter-terrorism expert was beginning their second day of college at Vassar. In Minnesota, sleepy students began trickling into a new teaching assistant’s discussion class. The world changed immediately on September 11, 2001—but it also changed slowly, in ways that only time can reveal. 

Two decades after that day, UVM Today gathered that same history professor, Boğaç Ergene; that same (now-graduated) college student, Professor of Political Science Peter Henne; and that same eager teaching assistant, Professor of U.S. History Nicole Phelps, for a roundtable discussion about 9/11’s place in history and what lessons we’ve learned 20 years later. The following transcript has been edited for clarity and length. Click here to continue reading.