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Symposium on trauma studies is March 18-20

Posted 3/16/2010

The recent earthquake in Haiti. Hurricane Katrina. Sept. 11, 2001. These events have something in common: the trauma experienced by the people who survive them.

The emerging field of trauma studies was the focus of the 2008-2009 Warren Center Fellows at Vanderbilt University. The faculty fellows focused on interdisciplinary discussion of trauma to better understand the individual and collective experiences of trauma with the hopes of improving trauma prevention and treatment.

The fellows will present their findings at the symposium “Trauma: Memory, the Body, and the Arts” March 18-20. All sessions are free and open to the public and will be held in the Bishop Joseph Johnson Black Cultural Center on campus.

 The symposium kicks off Thursday night, March 18, with the examination of whether or not someone can “start over” after a trauma and create a new self, or a new identity. Boy A, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts-award winning movie, will be screened with a discussion following.

Other presentations will examine the theme of returning to lost homes in literature; a multi-media view of death, bodies and culture; the use of poetry to heal from abuse; artwork produced after traumatic events, specifically Hurricane Katrina; and how to reclaim the body after trauma.

 For more information about the Robert Penn Warren Center at Vanderbilt University, visit http://www.vanderbilt.edu/rpw_center/center.htm. 

Contact: Missy Pankake, (615) 322-NEWS
missy.pankake@vanderbilt.edu

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