1. Rackham Student Discusses the Impact of Trauma Narratives at TEDxDetroit

Rackham Student Discusses the Impact of Trauma Narratives at TEDxDetroit

Sociology doctoral candidate Aya Waller-Bey discussed trauma narratives and why we glorify hardship.

May 12, 2023 | Rackham Graduate School

In September 2022, Rackham student Aya Waller-Bey, a doctoral candidate in the U-M Department of Sociology, discussed trauma narratives at the TEDxDetroit conference. Titled “Is My Pain Your Gain?”, Waller-Bey’s talk leaned heavily on her experience sharing her own trauma narrative as part of a college admissions essay, serving as a case study around which she addressed the reasons stories of trauma and hardship are glorified.

Waller-Bey’s scholarship on trauma narratives has been widely recognized, including with a 2020 Ford Foundation Predoctoral Fellowship awarded by the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine and a 2021 National Center for Institutional Diversity Anti-Racism Summer Research Grant.

Watch the presentation on YouTube.

 

Tags:

  • student spotlight
  • Sociology

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