NTT Assistant Professor of Philosophy
LATEST PROJECTS
Current Research
Project | 01 Trauma Tears; Love Builds Up
Abstract: Traumatologist Bessel van der Kolk states, “We now know that trauma compromises the brain area that communicates the physical, embodied feeling of being alive” (Van der Kolk 2014, 3). Though research into trauma primarily lies within the disciplines of psychoanalysis, psychology, neurobiology, and literary theory, the question of how trauma compromises the embodied feeling of being alive is fundamentally a philosophical inquiry. In trauma, what is at stake for us as humans is the aspect of embodiment that informs our sense of agency, ownship, and temporality. In the following, I survey the works of Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Shawn Gallagher, and Catharine Malabou and use the metaphor of the body as a work of art to describe what constitutes the embodied feeling of being alive, how it is compromised in traumatic experience, and how the destructive plasticity of trauma creates a new self. In doing so, I provide a phenomenology of trauma from the perspective of someone who has undergone such a metamorphosis of self to try and grasp why the metamorphosis of the self is such an abject, painful process. However, the metamorphosis of the self depicted in Malabou's destructive plasticity inadequately addresses the phenomenon of traumatic experience. I argue that trauma does more than just compromise aspects of embodiment such as ownership, subjectivity, and temporality, it heightens our awareness of embodiment. Thus, what is significant about trauma studies is that such inquiry discloses how embodiment informs agency. I first describe the aspects of embodiment that produces the sense of agency. Second, I articulate a general theory of plasticity and then explain Malabou’s account of destructive plasticity. I then summarize what we can learn from trauma regarding how embodiment informs agency. Last, I assert that no matter how overwhelming and painful the experience, there is an aspect of recovered agency that can be accomplished through writing-trauma.
Project | 02
Trauma-Informed Pedagogy
My experience with PTSD has fundamentally changed my approach to teaching and advising in and out of the classroom. Hence, I am currently researching and writing on Trauma-Informed Pedagogy.
Project | 03
Project | 03 Women's Week: The Wall of Oppression (2019, 2020) and The Tapestry of Resilience (2021)
For Women's Week at Adams, I organized, coordinated, and helped build a "Wall of Oppression." The idea was to paint a word or short phrase that made you feel oppressed at any point. Many students and faculty, and even members of the community, participated. This went on throughout the week. At the end of the week, we tore down the wall!
During Women's Week in 2021, I came up with the idea to create a Tapestry of Resilience. The idea behind it was to celebrate the resilience of women, students, professors, staff, and the community, especially given the past year enduring a pandemic.