The term transgenerational trauma has been increasingly in the centre of attention all over the world. It refers to a type of trauma that does not end with the individual. Instead, it remains in the families and is being passed through one generation to the next. Consequently, maladaptive coping strategies and distrustful views of life distress the future generations as well.
Discourses on past individual and collective traumas have shaped the worldwide #MeToo, the #BlackLivesMatter movements, they have played significant part in the reality of the Stolen Generations and the Holocaust, and have recently been also connected to the Covid19 pandemic. Transmission from one generation to the other is yet, still to be properly understood.
The Institute therefore aims at exploring and defining the phenomenon of trauma and trauma transmission in broad perspective, investigate it in cross-cultural as well as transdisciplinary perspective. The Institute also seeks to incorporate new research methodologies, such as arts-based methods in order to explore the tendencies in the intersecting areas studying trauma in the 21st century.
Head: Dr. Erzsébet Fanni Tóth, e-mail
Selected Research Projects
- Learning for Peace – third-party funded project
- Arts-based Trauma Research – video workshop for teenagers
Contact
Dr. Erzsébet Fanni Tóth
Mail: erzsebet.toth@sfu.ac.at