Wednesdays 2:00-4:00 PM

June 1, 2022 - June 29, 2022

Application Deadline: Rolling deadline until seats are filled.

Pending COVID restrictions, this microseminar will be offered in person on the MIT campus.

In this microseminar, we consider what Ann Cvetovich calls “public feelings” --emotional expressions assumed to be a private, personal experience—and how they influence social movement work as well as and notions of social belonging and intimacy.

What happens when grief following traumatic loss is intentionally named and channeled in various times and places?

What is gained (and perhaps lost) when the cultural mandate of ‘closure’ is resisted and instead, trauma and grief are centered, especially for members of marginalized communities? What is the impact of ‘holding on’ instead of ‘letting go’?

How does activism itself transform when emotions are authentically expressed in and through social change work?

Using affect theory as a conceptual foundation, we will consider specific examples of grief and trauma-driven activism to explore how memory and emotion can be mobilized to not only agitate for social change but also trouble the boundary between the private the public.

Faculty

D. Chris Bobel is Associate Professor of Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies at the University of Massachusetts Boston. Her scholarship lies at the intersection of social movements, gender, health, embodiment, and a new area---trauma and grief. Her most recent monograph is the book The Managed Body: Developing Girls and Menstrual Health in the Global South. Read more about Chris’s work here.