Narratives of Trauma, Resilience and Resistance: How members of the Hongkonger community co-construct their responses to repression through talk and art

A seminar by Mandy Lee (Centre for Health Policy and Management, School of Medicine/Department of Sociology) as a part of the School of Language, Literatures and Cultural Studies Seminar Series (SLLCS).

This paper will focus on interim findings from an ongoing narrative inquiry research project that examines how members of the pro-democracy Hongkonger community co-construct their responses to repression through talk and art since the 2019 mass protests. For this seminar, I will highlight three narrative practices that have become prominent features in Hongkongers' communal expressions of trauma, resilience and resistance: foul language, satire, and pointed silence. I will discuss how these communal expressions relate to current trauma theory by clinical specialists such as Gabor Mate, Bessel Van Den Kolk, and Samah Jabr; as well as how these relate to the work of social movements scholars such as James C. Scott, Charles Tilly, and Franscesca Poletta. In doing so, I would like to emphasize the value of engaging in interdisciplinary investigations in fields such as the medical and health humanities (MHH). 
 
Bio:
Mandy Lee is an Assistant Professor at the Centre for Health Policy and Management, School of Medicine, Trinity College Dublin. A sociologist of health and illness, her research interests include narrative medicine, trauma studies, and research ethics, with an increasing focus on creative/arts-based research methodologies and resilience/resistance studies. Mandy is a co-representative of the Trinity Medical and Health Humanities (MHH) working group at the Irish Humanities Alliance (IHA). She is also on the advisory board of the Trinity Inclusive Curriculum and a member of the Trinity Centre for Resistance Studies. A Hongkonger by ethnic background, she is an Executive Board member of Art and Culture Hong Kong (ACHK), a solidarity group of artists, scholars and activists that focus on the intricate interplay between art, culture, and politics pertaining to Hong Kong. Having co-founded the research ethics committee for her Centre and a sister Centre (CHPM-CGH REC) in 2009, and continuing to serve as an advisor to the committee at present, Mandy also co-founded and co-convenes the Research Ethics Conversation Series that is held jointly across TCD and University of Galway.

The School of Languages, Literatures and Cultural Studies Seminar Series (SLLCS) promotes Literary and Cultural Studies, including political and social thought, narratology and imagology, film, textual and visual studies, questions surrounding language learning and translation studies, and also practice-led research. We encourage comparative, interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research, as our intellectual inquiry is in the service of national and international debate and knowledge advancement, particularly on the construction of identity and otherness in literature and culture. The seminar series provides a forum for the dissemination and exchange of current and developing research from staff and postgraduate researchers within the school, and also from national and international guest speakers.

Please indicate if you have any access requirements, such as ISL/English interpreting, so that we can facilitate you in attending this event. Contact: ahmedm4@tcd.ie