Projects
“Chosen Traumas” and “Chosen Glories” in the Group Identity of the Johannine Community: An Exegetical Study of the Language of εἰρήνη in the Fourth Gospel through a Hermeneutics of Trans-generational Trauma and Social Memory KU Leuven
From the perspective of the gospel of John as an ideological product of its time, Jesus appears as a colluder or conspirator in his own death. In terms of Vamik Volkan’s notion of the trans-generational transmission of aspects of shared identity in ethnic groups, the gospel memorialises the “chosen trauma” (representations of past trauma) of Israel including the destruction of the temple in the “chosen glory” (representations of past victory) ...
Expanding the Notion of Trauma Narration: An Interdisciplinary Research into Post-Narrative Modes of Trauma Recovery in Transcultural Trauma Psychology and Theatre Studies Ghent University
This study focuses on the blurring of the linearity between narration and trauma recovery, which forms the topic of theoretical developments in both transcultural trauma psychology and theatre studies. This interdisciplinary study develops an empirical inquiry into post-narrative modes of a postdramatic aesthetic in applied theatre, aiming to further the understanding of trauma recovery shaped by coping strategies beyond narration.
Trauma beyond the biomedical paradigm: avenues for a subject-oriented and contextual approach of trauma Ghent University
In recent years the hegemonic, biomedical approach of psychich trauma, which strongly focuses on the individual, and is based upon a mechanical idea of trauma, has been criticized strongly. Via theoretical studies, this project aims at developing an alternative approach that is both subject-oriented and contextual. Possibilities and implications of the alternative approach will be explored.
Door trauma bewogen: Tegenovergestelde effecten van trauma in de kindertijd en fysieke activiteit op psychologische en biologische processen in de ontwikkeling van psychiatrische klachten bij jongvolwassenen KU Leuven
Adolescence and young adulthood is a period of intense biological, psychological and social changes. It is also the period wherein individuals are most vulnerable to develop psychiatric symptoms and disorders. In this PhD thesis we examine one major risk factor and one major resiliency factor for the development of psychopathology, respectively childhood adversity and physical activity and exercise. We examine their effects on two potential ...
The consequences of complex trauma for minor victims of extra-familial violence: towards a new diagnostic concept? Ghent University
Traumatic experiences can evoke serious problems, mostly described through the concept U+201Cpost-traumatic stress disorderU+201D. This syndrome, however, often does not suffice to gather all diverse problems resulting from having experienced a trauma, certainly when considering the consequences of U+201Ccomplex traumaU+201D. Therefore, studies with adults have led to a new conceptualisation of the complex of symptoms characterizing the ...
Remembering trauma in between disclosure and silencing: A multiple case study with Kurdish refugee families in Belgium KU Leuven
Research on the psychosocial sequelae of collective violence and forced displacement increasingly investigates the potentially harmful impact of these disruptive life experiences on relational dynamics within refugee families. Meanwhile, studies explore how intra-family processes may constitute protective sources in reversing the adverse impact of traumatization and reconstructing life in exile. In this regard, trauma communication has been ...
Traumatizing Metaphors: Hosea's Animal Imagery in Light of Cultural Trauma Studies KU Leuven
By combining cognitive metaphor studies and cultural trauma studies, this project intends to investigate whether animal metaphors in the book of Hosea can be considered linguistic tools for the transmission of collective trauma from the Northern kingdom of Israel to the Persian province of Yehud. Grounded in so-called Persian hypothesis, this thesis explores how Yehud’s intellectuals used animal metaphors not only to express trauma but, first ...
Multidirectional Memory and the Retrofitting of Trauma in Pat Barker and W. G. Sebald Ghent University
This project examines the articulation of traumatic memory in contemporary literature which retrofits current definitions of trauma to twentieth-century wars. Drawing on the conceptual model for thinking across traumatic histories developed by Michael Rothberg, it seeks a fuller understanding of the ways in which representations of traumatic memories circulate and interact in the work of the canonical trauma writers Pat Barker en W. G. ...
Sabbatical Lucia De Haene: Transcultural trauma care for refugees –Integrating pilot psychotherapeutic practices within a systemic & collaborative treatment mode KU Leuven
I would like to orient this sabbatical period on the elaboration of a manual (in English) in transcultural, systemic and collaborative trauma care for refugees, in which research findings and clinical experience from ongoing intervention projects and psychotherapeutic practice are integrated into a vision description and guidance for care providers in transcultural psychosocial assistance. In this I aim to develop a therapeutic vision and ...