Trauma and Violence Transdiciplinary Studies
Back to Previous Page

2005-2006 Events

With the generous support of NYU's Humanities Council, we convened a panel series: Traumatic Effects

Traumatic Effects: History

Is history crucially bound up with violence and trauma in various forms? How do violence and trauma afflict historiography and the philosophy of history? How does history register those who have been annihilated? Can history be construed as a work of mourning? an act of violence? both?
  • Martha Hodes, Associate Professor of History, NYU
  • Robert Jay Lifton, Psychiatrist, author, lecturer in Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School
  • Orlando Patterson, John Cowles Professor of Sociology, Harvard University
  • Moderated by Shireen R.K. Patell, Associate Director, Research in Trauma & Violence, NYU

19 University Place Room 101, Ground Floor Friday, April 28th, 4-6 p.m.; reception to follow

Traumatic Effects: Film

How does the moving image grapple with, present, represent trauma? Does the filmic text offer different possibilities for addressing trauma than the written text? How does documentary engage the difficulties of witnessing (for) trauma? Does trauma problematize the documentary form? Do traumatic films traumatize?

  • Christopher Clark, Department of German, NYU
  • Joan Grossman, Documentary filmmaker, New York
  • Bruce Reis, Psychoanalyst; Affiliated Faculty, NYC Post-Doctoral Program for Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy
  • Moderated by Shireen R.K. Patell, Associate Director, Research in Trauma & Violence, NYU

Deutsches Haus 42 Washington Mews (University Place near 8th Street) Friday, March 31st, 4-6 p.m.; reception to follow

Traumatic Effects: Remembrance

How do trauma and violence afflict the possibility of remembrance? How do we mourn and commemorate traumatic events? How do violence, mourning, and the necessity of remembrance shape the body politic, social and civic space, and the possibility of representation?

  • Mary Marshall Clark, Director, Oral History Research Office, Columbia University
  • Ann Pellegrini, Associate Professor, Religious Studies & Performance Studies, NYU
  • Mark Sanders, Associate Professor, Comparative Literature, NYU
  • Isaac Tylim, Psychoanalyst; Faculty and Training Supervisor, NYU Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis
  • Moderated by Shireen R.K. Patell, Associate Director, Research in Trauma & Violence, NYU

Friday, January 27th, 4-6 p.m. Reception to follow King Juan Carlos Center, 53 Washington Square South

Traumatic Effects: Vision and Culture

How does trauma impact the formation of culture? What is the relation of culture and violence? Does cultural production mediate, sublimate, and translate trauma and violence, or does it somehow also perpetuate, reproduce or initiate violence? How to think through the violence of culture?

  • LUIS CAMNITZER, Artist; Viewing Program curator, The Drawing Center, NY
  • PATRICK DEER, Assistant Professor of English, NYU
  • MICKI MCGEE, Sociologist and cultural critic; Visiting Scholar, NYU
  • ROSALIND MORRIS, Professor of Anthropology and Associate Director of the Center for Comparative Literature and Society, Columbia University
  • Discussant: AVITAL RONELL, Professor of German, Comparative Literature & English, and Director, Research in Trauma & Violence, NYU
  • Moderated by SHIREEN R.K. PATELL, Associate Director, Research in Trauma & Violence, NYU

THE DRAWING CENTER Wednesday, December 7, 6:30 p.m.; reception to follow
The Drawing Center, 35 Wooster Street, between Broome and Grand.

The Drawing Center’s current exhibition, Persistent Vestiges: Drawing from the American-Vietnam War, explores war, trauma, and culture. Thirty years after the fall of Saigon, Persistent Vestiges brings together work by Vietnamese and American artists from the war-era and the present day. A thought-provoking setting for this panel.