Trauma and Healing through the Lens of Intimate Partner Violence

This course explores the topic of intimate partner violence (IPV), including physical, sexual, and psychological abuse, from ecological and intersectional perspectives. Drawing on IPV as a core example of interpersonal violence more broadly, five central questions of the course will be 1) What are the psychological consequences of trauma in general, and IPV in particular? 2) How do interpersonal, ideological, and institutional factors shape survivors experience of and responses to trauma 3) How have various systems developed to address the complex social problem of IPV, both for good and for ill? 4) How do intersecting identities, social and material contexts, and institutional structures facilitate and impede healing? 5) How do our own backgrounds and positionalities shape the way we understand IPV and the people who experience, perpetrate, or respond to it? Building empathy, mutual respect, and community both within and outside the classroom will be central concerns.