Disrupting Trauma Tourism in Diversity Workshops and Scholarship Essays: A Participatory Study Describing Counternarratives by Queer, Trans, and Students of Colour.

Published In

Global South Scholars in the Western Academy: Harnessing Unique Experiences, Knowledges, and Positionality in the Third Space

ISBN

9781003109808

Document Type

Book Chapter

Publication Date

2022

Subjects

Sexual minorities -- Political aspects, Psychic trauma -- Cross-cultural studies, Memory -- Social aspects, Sex discrimination, Minority college teachers, Graduate students, College teachers

Abstract

When scholars critique the exploitation of traumatic conditions, they generally focus on international development agencies that advertise traumatic stories and historical sites of violence to increase charitable giving. Our chapter explores how such exploitation strategies are extended to international higher education institutions. We criticise diversity workshops and scholarship essays that exploit students’ traumatic stories and tokenise the very students it supports. The purpose is to describe how sharing traumatic stories in university spaces negatively impacts queer, trans (transgender), Black, Indigenous, and students of colour (QT/BIPOC). We use Martin’s Speaking for Ourselves Action Research (SOAR) design that begins with central questions answered by co-authors, then coded, and finally analysed collaboratively. We found that QT/BIPOC students critique university diversity spaces for essentialising them. We argue that trauma tourism exists in higher education’s diversity workshops and scholarships. We suggest ways that universities disrupt tokenisation by honouring, instead, minoritized students’ cultural wealth.

Rights

© 2022 Óscar Fernández and chapter contributing authors.

Description

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

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Non-PSU affiliate link: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003109808-14

DOI

10.4324/9781003109808-14

Persistent Identifier

https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/36897

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