Witnessing embodiment: Trauma, narrative and theory at the limit in field research and in the classroom

As theories of trauma and narrative appeal to notions of healing, they tend to imply a) that narrative itself can bear adequate witness to the body and b) that in so doing, narrative can, autonomously, enable healing. Giving examples from my experience, I argue that these assumptions encourage us to overlook embodied experiences of violence both in research and the classroom. I conclude by proposing a pedagogy that avoids stigmatizing subjects by consciously performing the knowledge that instructors and students themselves may have been, may be, or may become victim-survivors of violence.