Handbook

The concept of trauma has become increasingly central to individual and collective negotiations with the darker realities of our past and present, including interpersonal and civic violence and the legacies of colonisation and genocide. This course provides you with an understanding of the complex social and political dimensions of trauma and violence, including the overlap of medical and psychological discourses with political activism and public policy aimed at restoration and justice. You will engage with a range of sources drawn from sociology, criminology, history and social psychology to understand how scholars have theorized the experience and aftermath of violence, betrayal and state crime. We will also consider the relationship between trauma, memory and recovery.