Friday, December 9, 2022 | 12pm to 1pm
Online Talk
Dr. Khánh Lê’s talk draws from his doctoral project with Vietnamese American youth in the Philadelphia area. During Fall 2020, the youth participated in eight workshops to learn about their Vietnamese history, culture and language, as well as their history in the U.S. The eight workshops utilized the arts and storytelling to guide the youth to collectively narrate their experiences living in the diaspora. The careful examination of the youth’s narratives during the workshops helped him develop a theory of what he called “transtrauma.” He argues that Vietnamese American youth have distinct experiences from other Asian American youth and other refugees because they are suffering from transtrauma, that is, trauma that is experienced transgenerationally and that is not located in individuals per se, but has been transferred to the political entity that has caused it, in this case, the United States. Transtrauma is going beyond simply the individual, but looking at how structures of domination such as institutions play a role in inflicting trauma on marginalized communities. This transtrauma goes not only beyond an individual to encompass social structures, but also goes beyond generations, lasting from one generation to the next.
Asian American / Asian Studies across CUNY Brown Bag Series
Sponsored by the CUNY Black, Race and Ethnic Studies Initiative (BRESI) Grant
