On Wednesday, April 8th, 2009, Dr. Jennifer Yusin spoke of her studies in the Dean's Seminar entitled "Geographies of Trauma," sponsored by the College of Arts and Sciences. Her research focused on the relationships between trauma and the shaping of national identities. The event, which lasted from 3:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. in Disque 109, had nearly 50 people in attendance.

Yusin began by speaking of the challenge of defining trauma and its changing nature. She asked how individuals and society listen and respond to trauma, while mentioning that trauma is not just war-related and its definition has expanded to any sudden life-threatening events.

The second portion of Yusin's presentation focused on Sigmund Freud's Pleasure Principle and how it related to the psychology of trauma. Yusin explained that traumas cause a "disruption of one's perception of time," and that our "consciousness cannot process the trauma as a traumatic event at the moment it occurs and passes straight into the psyche."

The Pleasure Principle became a key point in the rest of the lecture and how the language of trauma has developed. Yusin often used the terms unknowability, impossibility, and erasure as the means for explaining other segments of her thesis.  The very nature of trauma makes it difficult for individuals to process and communicate their experiences. As a result, such events aren't wholly realized by victims. They often cannot cope with or understand their circumstances. She later discussed the lack of documentation or histories of such traumas, which leaves many without points of reference or awareness.

She then moved on to discuss the 1947 Partition of India and Pakistan. The event was central to the aim of her argument that the geography of trauma shapes both individual and national identities. The Partition caused the migration of 12 million people, and resulted in the deaths of one million people who were killed during the fight for independence in Pakistan.

Such trauma is difficult for individuals to grasp, locate, and articulate and is therefore lost in "historical specificity." Yusin spoke of the "wounded face of history" and the relationships between historical trauma and ethics. Aside from how a nation responds to trauma, the way a nation documents its trauma is crucial to the identity that is shaped from an event. To Yusin, literature is able to transcend historic specificity and is a mode of response for the individual. It can also capture and represent the psychology of those affected by sudden life-threatening events.

The discussion closed with a Q & A. An interesting point that came up about the Partition was that India was able to keep its name and history, whereas Pakistan is still searching for a story to call its own.

Yusin also stressed the importance of trauma studies as its own discipline. There was then a discussion about the recovery of those who have suffered from such a traumatic event and the various forms of therapy. Unfortunately for many, recovery isn't fully possible; some can only "partition their own identities."