The Power of the Trauma Narrative in an Intersectional World: Impact on Bodies, Minds, and Lived Experiences

This is a repeat of the winter program with the same title. Students who registered in winter should not register in spring. 

In this class, we will study and write about trauma and its impact on bodies, minds, and lived experiences. We’ll study interpersonal trauma, trauma experienced as a result of war, and also trauma that results from racism, colonialism, classism, transphobia, homophobia, sexism, ableism, ageism, the accumulation of microaggressions, and more. We’ll examine the writing of survivors and write about the impact of trauma on ourselves and the people, communities, and world around us. We’ll also study healing—is it preferred, and if so, why? Is it possible, and if so, how? Who has access to healing and what are barriers to access? Is the concept of wholeness helpful and/or detrimental? We’ll explore writing as part of a healing/transformative process, and we’ll study poems, stories, essays, spoken word, academic/scholarly works, and humor writing (including stand-up comedy).  Students will begin to assemble a collection of writing, creative and/or scholarly, related to trauma, its impact, and the possibilities of healing and/or transformation.