ABSTRACT
This chapter provides first-person narratives of our experiences negotiating collective, historical, and personal traumas in educational institutions throughout the COVID-19 pandemic as women of color researchers/practitioners and, in Kriti’s case, as a ststudent/trainee. Mobilizing what women of color and Third World feminists conceptualize as “theory in the flesh” (Moraga & Anzaldúa, 341983), we forward a critique that considers the interplay between institutions and bodies (5Cobos et al., 2018). As Sara Ahmed argues (12004), truth-telling narrative in response to trauma offers possibilities for exposure and recognition for those who have been historically colonized and enslaved. We challenge the common definition of trauma in medical literature as a response to a singular event or experience. We view trauma as “a mode of being” (46Schwab, 2010) linked to the formation of collective identity and memory (7Cvetkovich, 2003; 12Eyerman, 2004), even if acute traumas may often be sparked by particular cultural, political, or embodied events. In concluding, we reflect on how trauma-informed pedagogy should look given the demands of our current moment in which the intersections between university classroom spaces and healthcare settings are especially—and uniquely—visible. We offefer practical suggestions for care-oriented practitioners across the humanities and medicine.
