Conflict - Trauma - Violence

Scientific staff

The research area focuses on the one hand on the theory-based examination and discursive reconstruction of social conflicts and processes of violence, and on the other hand - with a view to the individuals - on the exploration of experiences of violence and traumatisation, their respective consequences and possible coping. This contributes to uncovering the meaning and effect of conflict, violence and trauma for identity formation and subjectification processes.

Fields of conflict and processes of violence are thus always viewed from at least two perspectives: (1) from the perspective of the historical reconstruction of the cultivation of violence, the persistence of structural violence and the maintenance of "symbolic forms" of conflict and violence as ascriptions of self and other in images of the enemy and - formulated more generally - in the construction of "the other"; (2) from the perspective of an individual-focused view, theories of trauma and trauma experiences move into the centre as well as the individual experience and the (shared) experience of the shattering of self and world relations - taking into account the importance of narrative, memory, adaptation and the transmission of traumatisation (e.g. transgenerational transmission).e.g. transgenerational transmission, secondary trauma consequences).

In terms of content and staffing, the Research Department mainly supervises elective module 6 Conflict - Trauma - Violence in the curriculum of the Master's programme in Educational Science as well as the communication and action competences in the Bachelor's programme module 17 and deepens the teaching for actors in the field in the university course Trauma Education.