Decolonizing Trauma Studies Round-Table Discussion

Abstract

This round-table, which featured literary critics Professor Stef Craps, Professor Bryan Cheyette and Dr. Alan Gibbs, was recorded as part of the “Decolonizing Trauma Studies” symposium organized by Dr. Sonya Andermahr and Dr. Larissa Allwork at The School of The Arts, The University of Northampton (15 May 2015). Convened a week after the University of Zaragoza’s “Memory Frictions” conference, where Cheyette, Gibbs, Andermahr and Allwork gave papers, the Northampton symposium and round-table was sponsored by The School of The Arts to coincide with Andermahr’s guest editorship of this special issue of Humanities. Craps, Cheyette and Gibbs addressed five questions during the round-table. Namely, does trauma studies suffer from a form of psychological universalism? Do you see any signs that trauma studies is becoming more decolonized? What are the challenges of a decolonized trauma studies for disciplinary thinking? How does a decolonized trauma studies relate to pedagogical ethics? Finally, where do you see the future of the field? While this edited transcript retains a certain informality of style, it offers a significant contribution to knowledge by capturing a unique exchange between three key thinkers in contemporary trauma studies, providing a timely analysis of the impact of postcolonial theory on trauma studies, the state of the field and its future possibilities. Issues addressed include the problematic scholarly tendency to universalize a western model of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD); the question of the centrality of the Holocaust in trauma studies and the implications of this for the study of atrocities globally; the vexed issues posed by the representation of perpetrators; as well as how the basic tenets of western cultural trauma theory, until recently so often characterized by a Caruth-inspired focus on belatedness and afterwardness, are being rethought, both in response to developments in the US and in answer to the challenge to ‘decolonize’ trauma studies.

“Decolonizing Trauma Studies: Trauma and Postcolonialism”—Introduction

“…In answering the central question about future directions of field, Stef Craps made the point that while work to date has done much to challenge the "inappropriateness and the injustice of applying western frameworks to a colonial or postcolonial situation" [18], scholars have been less concerned with producing a concrete alternative. For him, more work needs to be done on the practical development of alternatives to the dominant trauma discourse.…”

“…For him, more work needs to be done on the practical development of alternatives to the dominant trauma discourse. As he comments, this requires "specialized knowledge of other cultures and languages, of the different media and forms of expression they use, and of local beliefs about suffering and healing" [18]. His view is echoed by the editors of another recent study of postcolonial trauma fiction, who argue that theory needs to be enriched by a knowledge of social context, combining "the psychological and the cultural, in an interdisciplinary approach that draws on psychoanalysis, sociology, philosophy, and history in the study of the aesthetic representation of trauma" ( [19], p. xiv).…”

'Sedimented histories' and 'embodied legacies': Creating an evaluative framework for understanding public engagement with the First World War

“…Sensitizing the CHH team to contemporary controversies in First World War remembrance politics, particularly in relation to Commonwealth and minority communities, thus became a key part of undertaking these evaluative projects. For example, on starting her role at the CHH, Allwork, who had dealt with some of these theoretical issues as part of her involvement in an academic symposium, 'Decolonizing trauma studies' (Craps et al, 2015), was given an overview of CHH community partners by Noble. His overview was based on the preparatory relationship building that he had conducted in the first year of the centenary.…”

Do we need to decolonise bereavement studies?

“…Bracken and colleagues (2021), for example, suggest the decolonisation of psychiatry requires: critical thinking and education -without defensiveness -about the history of psychiatry; the involvement of grassroots organisations and those with lived experience; and openness to understanding indigenous approaches to distress. Indeed, with regard to the latter point, both anthropologists and anthropological psychiatrists (eg Schweder et al, 1997;Kleinman, 2006) have offered extensive consideration of variable experiences of suffering and distress across the globe, which links also to the decolonisation of trauma studies (eg Goozee, 2012, Craps et al, 2015.…”