| Abstrakt: |
Drawing on empirical data from qualitative research I conducted with eight Vietnamese American youth in the Fall of 2020, this paper forwards transtrauma, a new framework for conceptualizing and understanding the lived experiences of Vietnamese American youth. The concept of transtrauma goes beyond the pathologizing of individual trauma, to examine how structures of domination inflict and extend trauma in marginalized communities, such as that of Vietnamese American communities. Transtrauma transcends the overt and linear focus on trauma as a single experience and the examination of how institutionalized violence by nation states shapes the experiences of Vietnamese Americans. This conceptualization interrogates the United States role in shaping the trauma of Vietnamese Americans. The workshop was anchored in a translanguaging perspective. That is, I enabled students to feel free to deploy any aspect of their linguistic/semiotic/multimodal repertoire in telling their stories. The methodology showcases the importance of storytelling and the use of the Arts as a way to guide the youth to collectively share their own stories of their parents and grandparents’ journey from Vietnam to the United States. These collective stories highlight the transtrauma that Vietnamese Americans continue to experience. The paper concludes with advocating educators to uphold a pedagogy that is informed by transtrauma lenses in order for the youth to recognize their transtrauma and heal from it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
