The imagination here is to curate a
series of conversations between leading scholars in the field of trauma and
young and older scholars who are working on developing a new understanding of historical
trauma and its transgenerational repercussions in South Africa and the broader African
continent. Our aim in holding such a series of scholarly conversations is to
conduct an in-depth and on-going examination of historical trauma and its
intergenerational repercussions, and to use this platform as an alternative intellectual
frontier of knowledge production. We will facilitate scholarly dialogues with a focus especially
on the participation of young scholars exploring fresh questions in this field of studies
in historical trauma. Most of these dialogues will be by invitation only to
allow for extended rigorous discussions; however, some of these conversations
will be open to the public.
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The Future of Trauma:
African Scholars Thinking with Cathy Caruth
This was our first dialogue held on
14 October. This Round Table Discussion addressed the future of trauma from
different angles. The presentations included discussions on “childhood trauma
and psychoanalysis,” “trauma and breathing”, the intersections between “psychological
and sociological theories of trauma”, “the art of performing trauma” and how it
gives agency to the subaltern in a small black community in a mining town of
the Free State Province, and “trauma and the body.”
The link to the recording of the webinar of this event appears below: