NJCU English Professor Recognized for Honoring Triangle Fire Victims

NJCU Professor of English Dr. Edvige Giunta was recently recognized for her ongoing work to honor the memories of victims of a 1911 factory fire in New York City that exposed horrible working conditions which contributed to the cause of the blaze.

Giunta received a Certificate of Appreciation from the Triangle Fire Memorial Association during the group’s annual awards ceremony, which was held in Queens, N.Y. on March 25 to commemorate the 107th anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire. The fire claimed the lives of 146 victims, many of them young immigrant women.

The memorial association was started by U.S. State Senator Serphin Maltese and his brother, Vincent, who both lost a grandmother and two aunts in the Triangle Fire.

Giunta was also honored with a citation from the New York State Assembly that declared Giunta as “an outstanding citizen, one who is worthy of the esteem of both the Community and the Great State of New York.”

The factory workers had little time or chance to escape the fire as it swiftly spread through the cramped Triangle Shirtwaist garment factory, located in the Asch Building in lower Manhattan. It remained the deadliest workplace tragedy in New York City’s history until the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.

Grief over the catastrophe quickly turned to public outrage as the causes of the fire, including abhorrent working conditions, such as the availability of only one fire escape and locked doors that prevented escape, were uncovered as the result of the blaze. Political and government leaders soon helped marshal new workplace safety standards into law in the State of New York, setting an example for the rest of the nation.

Giunta’s interest in the Triangle Fire began in Sicily, Italy, during the late 1970s when she was involved with the Sicilian feminist movement. In the United States, Giunta worked with the Collective of Italian-American Women to organize a commemoration in 2011 for the 90th anniversary of the fire.

She has organized and participated in panel discussions and lectures about the fire. Giunta also developed a General Education Capstone course, The Triangle Fire: Cross-Disciplinary Perspective. She  teaches the history and legacy of the fire in her courses on immigrant literature.

Giunta is currently working with Mary Ann Trasciatti on an edited collection tentatively titled, Talking to the Girls: Intimate and Political Essays on the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire.