Disaster, Trauma and Loss

Catalog description

This course will introduce a cohesive perspective from which to consider immediate, emerging, and long-term community engagement and clinical practice in the aftermath of disaster. Considering collective and individual impact, as well as resourcefulness, as disasters evolve, discussion will include dimensions of distress, trauma, loss, and traumatic loss, within a cultural frame. Providing a global and historical context, the class will consider a variety of disasters, and the social realities of inequity and violation often accompanying them. Cumulative police shootings/choking within a context of race, no indictments, collective grief, and community protest; the Sydney, Australia hostage situation accompanied by #illridewithyou hashtag in solidarity; the recent Philippine typhoon, so soon after last year’s typhoon devastation as many still mourn and recover; the epidemic of Ebola in West Africa, as here in the city diaspora families mourn for loved ones and experience others’ animosity and suspicion, and as health workers plead for respect, and the city community grapples with fear; unaccompanied children from Central America fleeing violence and violation; the context of humanitarian catastrophe across the Middle East; the continuing impact of the Newtown, Connecticut, school shooting, and the context of other school and community shootings; the unprecedented devastation of Superstorm Sandy, with long-extended regional and local impact, still; the East Harlem building explosion and collapse; and the Boston marathon bombing, are only some. In addition, the Japan earthquake/tsunami/nuclear power plant disaster, amid uncertainty and worry; the Haiti earthquake, with attendant health and infrastructure problems; the Gulf Coast region hurricanes of Katrina and Rita, amidst issues of race and class; the Indian Ocean region tsunami in the context of civil war; and the…