July 23-July 27, 2012
9:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m.
Room 614 Social Sciences
University of Minnesota
30 CEUs
2 graduate credits available for additional fee (contact outreach@umn.edu if interested)
Registration deadline: July 9, 2012
How do we read narratives of trauma? What does it mean to experience the suffering of others through hart? What role can literature and film play in helping trauma survivors recover and heal? These are questions with which English, history, and art educators must grapple a twenty-first century populated with media images of tragedy and suffering. This institute will provide the opportunity for middle and high school teachers from across disciplines to think through the ways in which we approach the difficult task of engaging historical and personal trauma through creative works. We will examine closely both the positive uses of "trauma texts" and the risks that teaching such texts involves (secondary trauma, voyeurism, reductionism, pity). Importantly, we will spend time discussing the place of hope and agency, and the ways in which the artistic voice can promote growth and healing, both for the trauma survivor and the reader/spectator.
We will read a variety of theoretical and primary texts across genres (short stories, poetry, film, theater). Guest speakers will provide the institute with outside expertise and perspectives from a diversity of contexts. Institute participants will develop and receive feedback on a micro unit constructed around a text (film, poem, play, novel, etc.) for use in their classroom and will participate in creative writing exercises that model ways in which students can use their own stories as potential sites for healing and growth.
Register Online here.
If you have any questions, please contact Deborah LeClaire at outreach@umn.edu or 612-624-7346.
