Trauma: The 6th Global Conference

Trauma The 6th Global Conference Call for Participation 2016 Friday 11th March – Sunday 13th March 2016 Budapest, Hungary In a world where we are constantly presented with images and stories of traumatic events, there is often a temptation to look away to avoid the reality of individual and collective suffering. Yet, trauma forces us to confront suffering and humanity in others as well as in ourselves; to share, witness and acknowledge the pain and its causes in the hope of finding some means of resolution.This inter-disciplinary and multi-disciplinary research and publishing stream seeks to examine and explore issues concerning individual and collective trauma in terms of real life experiences, practice, and theory. Over the past century, the field of trauma practice and theory has broadly developed from its roots in psychoanalysis to becoming a dominant methodology for explaining human responses to disruptive life events. Indeed, it has been argued that in this century we are more exposed than ever to a 'culture of trauma'. Trauma has a thematic identity that exists on the interdisciplinary fringes of other subject areas, either peripherally nudging, or fully penetrating existing research fields, shifting cultures and influencing global politics. Thus, while we welcome research papers of core theoretical and clinical interest, we also warmly encourage presentations, workshops, and discussions that address the relationship between trauma and: survival and resilience; forgiveness and reconciliation; the erotic; brain function; the impact of intimate partner violence; gender and sexuality – moving beyond the male/female dichotomy; working with the experience of accumulated and complex traumas; trauma pedagogy and therapeutic practices; practical approaches to national and international trauma; religion and the politicisation of trauma – fundamentalism and the perpetration of traumatic acts; and trauma in the workplace. We also welcome submissions that conceive of trauma as a space or opportunity to create change, make new meaning, and support psychological and emotional growth. We encourage presentations that feature auto-ethnographical and experiential accounts, case studies, papers, performance pieces, reports, and works of art, works-in-progress, and workshops addressing issues that might include (but are not limited to) any of the following themes: 1. Theorising Trauma ~ Trauma and post colonialism – ideological and ethical considerations ~ Memory – recalling the 'ghosts' of trauma ~ Music, writing, drama, dance, art, and other creative activities as therapy/healing ~ Trauma and loss ~ Wounds of national identity ~ Trauma studies ~ Individual versus collective trauma ~ Socio-cultural perspectives on traumatic experience ~ Gender – differences, outcomes, and responses. ~ The body as a trauma a site ~ Psychic trauma – emotional and mental disorder ~ Resilience and trauma ~ Social justice and trauma – culturally different approaches ~ New theory, integration, and application ~ Attitudes toward trauma across cultures and over time 2. Representing Trauma ~ Aesthetics and experience ~ Affect, trauma, and art – embodiment and transformation ~ Eyewitness reports ~ Trauma and the supernatural ~ Fear and horror – fact and fiction ~ Gaming, violence and normalisation ~ Trauma on stage, screen, and in cyberspace ~ Traumatic expression ~ Language and media: mixing reality with fiction ~ Literature and poetry ~ New technologies of trauma ~ Reporting on trauma ~ Images and narrative relationships ~ Otherness, spirituality, and trauma 3. Personal Experiences and Local Contexts of Trauma ~ Bereavement: parent; sibling; partner loss ~ War and trauma (including PTSD) ~ Abandonment ~ Betrayal ~ Peer pressure and bullying ~ Murder and assault – impact on the self and portrayal by the news media ~ Domestic violence – impact upon individuals and future service delivery ~ Child abuse and childhood trauma ~ Survivor guilt – in the wake of loss ~ Identity – de/construction and transformation ~ Disability – the affect on psychomotor skills ~ Witnessing trauma – helping those we love ~ Testimony ~ The interrogation, critiquing, representation, and/or creation of works that deal with fictional and actual traumatic events ~ "Bogus" or "opportunistic" claims of trauma and the motives behind them 4. Public and Political Trauma ~ War and trauma, both past and present ~ Captivity and torture ~ Public disasters and trauma including environmental catastrophes ~ Disease, public health and trauma ~ Political trauma, silencing dissent/voicing dissent ~ Social trauma ~ Trauma in the workplace ~ Trauma and financial (in)security ~ Traumatic displacement and cultural uprooting ~ Inherited intergenerational trauma ~ Truth, remembrance, and reconciliation 5. Diagnosing and Treating Trauma ~ Critical questions of practice ~ Experiential trauma work and practical projects ~ Resilience ~ Cultural barriers to diagnosis and treatment ~ Writing as therapy ~ Storytelling as means of recovery ~ Art as a form of healing ~ Music as therapy ~ Animals and healing ~ Medical, therapeutic, and holistic approaches to trauma management ~ Vicarious traumatisation, secondary stress, and compassion fatigue. Professional helpers/researchers' experiences and/or as survivors ~ Coping strategies – stress management and reduction ~ Perspectives of change – identity, and post-traumatic growth, person to survivor ~Treatment as re-traumatisation ~ Economics of trauma: businesses catering for treatment, self-help industry, etc. Call for Cross-Over Presentations The Trauma project will be meeting at the same time as a project on The Supernatural and another project on Loss. We welcome submissions which cross the divide between both project areas. If you would like to be considered for a cross project session, please mark your submission "Crossover Submission". Further details and information can be found at the project web page: http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/at-the-interface/evil/trauma/call-for-papers/ What to Send 300 word abstracts, proposals and other forms of contribution should be submitted by Friday 2nd October 2015. All submissions be minimally double reviewed, under anonymous (blind) conditions, by a global panel drawn from members of the Project Team and the Advisory Board. In practice our procedures usually entail that by the time a proposal is accepted, it will have been triple and quadruple reviewed. You will be notified of the panel's decision by Friday 16th October 2015. If your submission is accepted for the conference, a full draft of your contribution should be submitted by Friday 5th February 2016. Abstracts may be in Word, RTF or Notepad formats with the following information and in this order: a) author(s), b) affiliation as you would like it to appear in programme, c) email address, d) title of proposal, e) body of proposal, f) up to 10 keywords. E-mails should be entitled: Trauma Abstract Submission Where to Send Abstracts should be submitted simultaneously to both Organising Chairs: Organising Chairs: Peter Bray: p.bray@auckland.ac.nz Rob Fisher: trauma6@inter-disciplinary.net This event is an inclusive interdisciplinary research and publishing project. It aims to bring together people from different areas and interests to share ideas and explore various discussions which are innovative and exciting. There will be an eBook resulting from the conference meeting. It is also anticipated that a number of publishing options will arise from the work of the project generally and from the meeting of the Trauma stream in particular. Other options, some of which might include digital publications, paperbacks and a journal will be explored during and after the meeting itself. Ethos Inter-Disciplinary.Net believes it is a mark of personal courtesy and professional respect to your colleagues that all delegates should attend for the full duration of the meeting. If you are unable to make this commitment, please do not submit an abstract for presentation. Please note: Inter-Disciplinary.Net is a not-for-profit network and we are not in a position to be able to assist with conference travel or subsistence.