Trauma, Triggers and Tricky Terrains: Reflections on Teaching on Violence, Rights and Anthropological Controversies.

Abstract

For the same reasons that action, thrillers and horror are among the more popular film genres, within anthropological teaching and research the vicariousness of anthropology is often amplified when we delve into violence, suffering and the morality of others. Over the past two decades I have taught across many themes and topics, but recurrent throughout and increasingly central to my teaching (as I became more specialised and gained more agency in designing curricula) have been violence, human rights and anthropological controversies. These are subjects that inherently deal with narratives and testimonies of violence and abuse of power, exploring traumatic events through prisms of history, theory and lessons to be learned. In a ten-week course spanning across centuries and continents it is inevitable that some of the suffering touched upon will relate to specific student’s experiences and familial biographies. This reflective piece explores some of the lessons students have taught me, helpful practices I have developed along the way and thoughts about the problematic limits of ad hoc trauma-informed teaching.

Keywords: Teaching anthropology; teaching violence, teaching controversies, teaching human rights, trauma.