CO-SPONSORSHIP: Ecclesial Practices Unit and Latina/o Religion, Culture, and Society Unit

Seeking Freedom in an Open Wound: Trauma, Memory and Border Crossing in La Herida Abierta

The Presidential theme of Freedom provides an opportunity for the Ecclesial Practices Unit and the Latino/a Religion, Culture and Society to explore the emancipatory potential of autoethnography.  Critical theorist Gloria Anzaldúa offers an autohistoria-teoría that illustrates how self-historical writing provides critical, analytical and spiritual insights to theorize experiences against repressive socio-cultural discourse.

Our session invites scholars to explore the theme of Freedom by engaging with the one of following topics:

• Embodied Knowledge and Freedom: What role trauma and intergenerational trauma play in narratives of freedom? How does migration, the journey from one location to another in search "to be free", shed light on the individual and communal wounds? 
• Crossing Boundaries and Freedom: How do borders (metaphorical and real) frame and/or constrain the possibilities for liberation?
• Memory and Legacy of Resistance: How do our ancestral memories and histories shape our understanding of freedom and resistance? What role does collective memory play in the legacies of colonialism, racism and patriarchy and how does it shape our ongoing struggle for freedom?