2017 UAA Annual Conference

The call for a trauma informed approach to engaging challenges posed by enduring urban injustices is increasing. What does this mean and how can we analyze increasingly complex social contexts of urban sociality, where notions of race, practices of ethnicity, and political economic forces challenge our existing models? Our engaged research practices here at the Kirwan Institute teach us that trauma, particularly racial trauma, is sociogenic. We see trauma transcending individual psychological wellbeing to include interrelated internal and external factors. Drawing on research and field experience related to critical trauma theory, food security, civic engagement, youth development, and implicit bias research and training, this colloquy brings Kirwan’s interdisciplinary research lens to the intersection between individually focused cognitive and broader socio-structural factors that reflect the interplay between racial inequity and individual and social wounding.


Maurice Stevens, Ohio State University
Glennon Sweeney, Ohio State University
Kelly Capatosto, Ohio State University
Clarence Jackson, Ohio State University