The International Network for Interdisciplinary Research
about the Impact of Traumatic Experience on the Life of
Individuals and Society (Trauma Research Net) announces its
Third International Conference entitled: "Trauma -
Stigma and Distinction: Social Ambivalences in the Face of
Extreme Suffering," which will take place from 14-17
September 2006 in St. Moritz (Switzerland). Since 1995, the
Hamburg Institute for Social Research has provided the
basis for an informal network on trauma research that now
reaches more than one thousand institutions and
individuals. The goal and purpose of the Trauma Research
Net is to foster interdisciplinary discourse among those
working in trauma research by linking the institutions and
individuals working practically or theoretically in
relevant fields. Two previous conferences, organized by the
Trauma Research Net in 1998 and 2002, have provided
important venues for formulating or re-examining
assumptions and questions that play a central role in this
highly diverse area of research.
At this conference we are especially interested in research
that combines various levels of discourse on trauma, in
order to juxtapose or intertwine practical and theoretical
points of view and develop dialog between and across
disciplines. Hence our program is addressed both to
professionals working with trauma victims on a practical,
therapeutic level and to those researching, writing, and
teaching about trauma on a more theoretical level.
The conference "Trauma - Stigma and Distinction:
Social Ambivalences in the Face of Extreme Suffering"
aims to elucidate how the dominant role of the trauma
concept affects our thinking about violence and its
aftermath. The aim of the conference is to scrutinize
social aspects of trauma discourse and of the practice of
trauma therapy-their ideology, politics, economy. We seek
to examine what social aspects are emphasized when we speak
of trauma-both individual and collective-and what aspects
fade into the background. Thus, we are focusing on the
following topics:
• Social Recognition and Denial of Trauma
• Hierarchies Between and Within Victim Groups
• Practical Work with Victim Groups and the Influence of
Prejudice and Idealization
• Hostility and Reconciliation in Conflict Resolution after
Extreme Suffering
• Validation and Subversion in Professional Discourses on
Trauma
We have organized the conference in five plenary sessions, an open space forum and four workshop sessions (the latter lasting from 90 to 150 minutes). During the workshop sessions, five groups, each focusing on one of the themes outlined above, will be convened to discuss contributions presented by a total of more than forty speakers. Please note that in this tentative program, speakers in each workshop session appear in alphabetical order; the actual order of presentation will be decided by the chair before the conference.
When registering for the conference, participants are asked to select one of the five thematic groups to attend for all of the four workshop sessions, in order to ensure continuity in the group discussions.
The conference will close with a plenary session in which three or four commentators will review the outcome of the conference-what succeeded, what was left out or remained unfinished-and will make suggestions on how we should proceed in the future.
Cornelia Berens
on behalf of the conference steering committee: Dr. David
Becker (Berlin), Cornelia Berens, M.A. (Hamburg), Prof. Dr.
José Brunner (Tel Aviv), André Karger (Düsseldorf), Dipl.
Psych. Angela Kühner (München), and Prof. Dr. Jan Philipp
Reemtsma (Hamburg)
Cornelia Berens, M.A.
International Network for Interdisciplinary Research about
the Impact of Traumatic Experience on the Life of
Individuals and Society (Trauma Research Net)
Hamburger Institut für Sozialforschung / Hamburg Institute
for Social Research
Mittelweg 36
20148 Hamburg
Germany
Phone +49 (40) 41 40 97-38
Fax. +49 (40) 41 40 97-11
Email Cornelia.Berens@his-online.de