The Trauma-Centred Study Group brings together PGRs, ECRs, alumni, and faculty from across King's College London as well as other London-based universities to explore trauma as both a tool of analysis within our research and a tool of self-reflection for ourselves as researchers. We facilitate routine dialogue through discussion-based sessions, workshops, and public lectures and offers a creative space for collaboration and innovative thinking among researchers about the visibility of trauma as a concept, methodology, and informed practice within our research, curricula, and policy-making spheres.
Our Mandate
Trauma has emerged as a defining characteristic of 21st-century life. It leaves an irreversible mark on the lives of those living in war zones, those who have suffered incidents of extremist violence, those who have fought on the frontlines and from behind computer screens, those who subsist in discriminatory institutions and inequitable systems, and those who have survived unspeakable acts of violence. Immersive study on these topics can also take a serious mental and emotional toll on researchers themselves which can lead to symptoms of vicarious trauma, burnout, and PTSD.
The TCSG’s key aims are to:
- Build a robust network of academics, experts, practitioners, and clinicians from across the UK, Europe and North America to advance routine dialogue about trauma-informed research practices and exchange knowledge about approaches to emotionally-demanding and ‘difficult’ research.
- Articulate trauma-related knowledge gaps, questions, and policy issues to foster an ambitious research agenda rooted in collaboration between the humanities, social sciences, and clinical perspectives.
- To enhance the sustainability of work in ‘difficult’ fields by developing toolkits and strategies, publishing new research, and team-specific consulting designed to educate government and industry on effective approaches to employee care.
Making Space for the 'Personal' and the 'Professional'
The TCSG begins from the premise that the boundaries between our 'professional' and 'personal' experiences as researchers are rarely clear cut. The TCSG offers both a platform and a safe space for researchers to share their experiences, perspectives, and concerns about the role of trauma within their respective research journeys. In doing so, this study group fosters and elevates dialogue on an issue studied and experienced by countless researchers working on sensitive and emotionally-demanding topics. We collaborate with various organisations such as the Centre for Anxiety Disorders and Trauma to bring clinical and behavioural science perspectives to our sessions and workshops.
Training & Consulting
The TCSG explores trauma-informed methods and tools from a wide range of perspectives. Working with those who have survived varying degrees of trauma is a delicate dynamic that requires researchers to consider a range of safeguarding mechanisms, from ethics applications to trauma-informed research methods, in order to protect the human subjects involved in our research. Such practices can help researchers create a safe space for interviewing those who have experienced combat, violence, and/or large-scale destruction. Similarly, trauma-informed practices can provide a framework for researchers to make sense of the silences, of what is not being said, and the impact of trauma on one’s memory. The TCSG offers researchers training opportunities, tips, and strategies for strengthening trauma-informed research practices.
Storytelling, Narrative Sovereignty, & Self-Reflection
Immersive study in trauma-related and -effected topics can also take a serious mental and emotional toll on the researchers themselves. In this sense, trauma-informed research approaches are also self-reflective on the challenges that researchers may face when working with trauma survivors and/or archival records of systemic violence, conducting fieldwork in post-conflict zones, or even of being a trauma survivor themselves after experiencing violence, displacement, or discrimination. The TCSG embraces storytelling and narrative sovereignty as mediums and practices for teaching and learning through lived experience.
Get involved - Join our mailing list!
People
Ax:son Johnson Institute for Statecraft and Diplomacy Doctoral Fellow
Themes
Public Events
We hold public events - lectures and roundtables - that feature scholars, practitioners, and artists working in this area. These events are advertised widely and all are welcome to attend!
Workshops
We offer training sessions in collaboration with other research centres and groups. Workshops are led by researchers and practitioners and aim to engage PGRs/ECRs. These sessions focus on equipping participants with tools, strategies, and lessons learned to incorporate into their own repertoire of trauma-informed research and wellbeing practices.
Invite-Only Sessions
These sessions aim to bridge the 'personal' with the 'professional'. Ahead of each session, the invited chair/speaker is invited to circulate a short think piece – whether something that they themselves have authored or a timely and thought-provoking article published elsewhere – intended to spark questions and reflections for participants ahead of the session. Each session begins with opening remarks/reflections by the invited chair/speaker as a point of departure for a guided discussion about the topic at hand. Because of the story-telling and discussion-based nature of the sessions, they are open only to existing TCSG members.
Support Groups
In parallel to the TCSG, a pilot programme for a Support Group for PhDs and ECRs working on Emotionally-Demanding Topics was hosted in Arts & Humanities between February and May 2024. Dr Zoë Norridge facilitated several sessions which provided a space for researchers to discuss what it feels like to do this research that engages with people or information about people (animals and the environment) experiencing pain, violence, trauma, discrimination, poverty, isolation and other challenges. Dr. Norridge's research own research focuses on cultural responses to the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. She is currently training in Gestalt approaches to group facilitation and has two decades of experience researching and teaching emotionally demanding topics.
Additional Themes
Activities
On the Wrong Side: How Universities Protect Perpetrators and Betray Survivors of Sexual Violence
23 January 2025 @ 5pm online Join us for an interactive book talk with Nicole Bedera about her research journey and some of the main conclusion from her new book. Register in advance to receive a link to the event.
Public Lecture: Taking care of ourselves and each other when researching violence: more than bubble-baths and chocolate pralines
Featuring Philipp Schulz and Madita Standke-Erdmann. Drawing on research journeys and policy experiences, Philipp Schulz proposes adopting relational and collaborative ways of taking care of ourselves and each other when working on emotionally-demanding topics. These collaborative and relational approaches may include forms of peer-support and fostering ‘caring communities’, in the form of groups, collectives and networks, inspired by collectivism and reciprocity, rather than individualism. Ultimately, this lecture explores the ways in which forging research communities rooted in empathy can offer researchers the support that we need to engage with difficult pasts.
Workshop: Preparing for Emotionally-Demanding Fieldwork
Join the King’s Trauma-Centred Study Group and SSPP Research Culture for a ‘working lunch’ workshop on preparing for emotionally-demanding fieldwork. Panelists will explore a range of topics from coping with loneliness while researching in new places to setting boundaries with your interviewees to managing your physical and mental well-being while working in places where the experience of violence is ongoing. Dr Anna Plunkett and Brontë Philips will be joining us to share the insights they've learned from their own fieldwork. Clinical Psychologist Katy Price from the Centre for Anxiety Disorders and Trauma will speak to the tools we can use to prepare and protect ourselves and how to identify when we're feeling the impact.
SSPP Workshop: Preparing for Emotionally-Demanding Fieldwork
Dr Christine Cheng and Dr Harriet Aldrich will be joining us to speak to their own experiences with emotionally demanding research and share the insights they've learned over time. Dr Katy Price from the Centre for Anxiety Disorders and Trauma will speak to the tools we can use to prepare and protect ourselves and how to identify when we're feeling the impact.
TCSG Guest Lecture | Staging History: Can Art Narrate the Silenced Past?
King's Trauma-Centred Study Group is hosting Lilia Topouzova from the University of Toronto for its annual guest lecture. Dr. Topouzova's talk will explore Bulgaria's gulag under the communist regime and the making of "The Neighbours" multimedia installation featured at the 2024 Venice Biennial which brings to light the stories and voices of survivors.
Events Schedule
TCSG Draft Programme, 2024-5
We host monthly invite-only discussion groups, collaborative workshops, guest lectures, and a lunchtime series called 'Stranded on the Strand.' Download our full programme of events in the link below.
Schedule, 2023-2024
On Vicarious Trauma
Chair: Amanda Chisholm
Date: 1-2pm, 29 November 2023
On Institutions
Speaker: Christine Cheng
Date: 11-12:30pm, 19 January 2024
On Memory
Speaker: Jade McGlynn
Date: 11-12:30pm, 2 February 2024
On Silence
Guest Speaker: Lilia Topouzova
Date: 11-12:30pm, 16 February 2024
Public Guest Lecture | Staging History: Can Art Narrate the Silenced Past?
Guest Speaker: Lilia Topouzova
Date: 7-8:30pm, 16 February 2024
On Lived-Experience
Speaker: Patrick J. Vernon
Date: 11:30am-1:00pm, 11 March 2024
On Power and Abuse
Speaker: Stephan Engelkamp
Date: 1:00-2:30pm, 27 March 2024
SSPP Workshop | On Researching Sensitive & Emotionally-Demanding Topics
Speakers: Harriet Aldrich, Christine Cheng , Kathryn Price, and Lucy Purnell
Date: 1:30-3:30pm, 12 June 2024
Interested in collaborating and/or proposing a session? Reach out to us!
People
Ax:son Johnson Institute for Statecraft and Diplomacy Doctoral Fellow
Themes
Public Events
We hold public events - lectures and roundtables - that feature scholars, practitioners, and artists working in this area. These events are advertised widely and all are welcome to attend!
Workshops
We offer training sessions in collaboration with other research centres and groups. Workshops are led by researchers and practitioners and aim to engage PGRs/ECRs. These sessions focus on equipping participants with tools, strategies, and lessons learned to incorporate into their own repertoire of trauma-informed research and wellbeing practices.
Invite-Only Sessions
These sessions aim to bridge the 'personal' with the 'professional'. Ahead of each session, the invited chair/speaker is invited to circulate a short think piece – whether something that they themselves have authored or a timely and thought-provoking article published elsewhere – intended to spark questions and reflections for participants ahead of the session. Each session begins with opening remarks/reflections by the invited chair/speaker as a point of departure for a guided discussion about the topic at hand. Because of the story-telling and discussion-based nature of the sessions, they are open only to existing TCSG members.
Support Groups
In parallel to the TCSG, a pilot programme for a Support Group for PhDs and ECRs working on Emotionally-Demanding Topics was hosted in Arts & Humanities between February and May 2024. Dr Zoë Norridge facilitated several sessions which provided a space for researchers to discuss what it feels like to do this research that engages with people or information about people (animals and the environment) experiencing pain, violence, trauma, discrimination, poverty, isolation and other challenges. Dr. Norridge's research own research focuses on cultural responses to the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. She is currently training in Gestalt approaches to group facilitation and has two decades of experience researching and teaching emotionally demanding topics.
Additional Themes
Activities
On the Wrong Side: How Universities Protect Perpetrators and Betray Survivors of Sexual Violence
23 January 2025 @ 5pm online Join us for an interactive book talk with Nicole Bedera about her research journey and some of the main conclusion from her new book. Register in advance to receive a link to the event.
Public Lecture: Taking care of ourselves and each other when researching violence: more than bubble-baths and chocolate pralines
Featuring Philipp Schulz and Madita Standke-Erdmann. Drawing on research journeys and policy experiences, Philipp Schulz proposes adopting relational and collaborative ways of taking care of ourselves and each other when working on emotionally-demanding topics. These collaborative and relational approaches may include forms of peer-support and fostering ‘caring communities’, in the form of groups, collectives and networks, inspired by collectivism and reciprocity, rather than individualism. Ultimately, this lecture explores the ways in which forging research communities rooted in empathy can offer researchers the support that we need to engage with difficult pasts.
Workshop: Preparing for Emotionally-Demanding Fieldwork
Join the King’s Trauma-Centred Study Group and SSPP Research Culture for a ‘working lunch’ workshop on preparing for emotionally-demanding fieldwork. Panelists will explore a range of topics from coping with loneliness while researching in new places to setting boundaries with your interviewees to managing your physical and mental well-being while working in places where the experience of violence is ongoing. Dr Anna Plunkett and Brontë Philips will be joining us to share the insights they've learned from their own fieldwork. Clinical Psychologist Katy Price from the Centre for Anxiety Disorders and Trauma will speak to the tools we can use to prepare and protect ourselves and how to identify when we're feeling the impact.
SSPP Workshop: Preparing for Emotionally-Demanding Fieldwork
Dr Christine Cheng and Dr Harriet Aldrich will be joining us to speak to their own experiences with emotionally demanding research and share the insights they've learned over time. Dr Katy Price from the Centre for Anxiety Disorders and Trauma will speak to the tools we can use to prepare and protect ourselves and how to identify when we're feeling the impact.
TCSG Guest Lecture | Staging History: Can Art Narrate the Silenced Past?
King's Trauma-Centred Study Group is hosting Lilia Topouzova from the University of Toronto for its annual guest lecture. Dr. Topouzova's talk will explore Bulgaria's gulag under the communist regime and the making of "The Neighbours" multimedia installation featured at the 2024 Venice Biennial which brings to light the stories and voices of survivors.
Events Schedule
TCSG Draft Programme, 2024-5
We host monthly invite-only discussion groups, collaborative workshops, guest lectures, and a lunchtime series called 'Stranded on the Strand.' Download our full programme of events in the link below.
Schedule, 2023-2024
On Vicarious Trauma
Chair: Amanda Chisholm
Date: 1-2pm, 29 November 2023
On Institutions
Speaker: Christine Cheng
Date: 11-12:30pm, 19 January 2024
On Memory
Speaker: Jade McGlynn
Date: 11-12:30pm, 2 February 2024
On Silence
Guest Speaker: Lilia Topouzova
Date: 11-12:30pm, 16 February 2024
Public Guest Lecture | Staging History: Can Art Narrate the Silenced Past?
Guest Speaker: Lilia Topouzova
Date: 7-8:30pm, 16 February 2024
On Lived-Experience
Speaker: Patrick J. Vernon
Date: 11:30am-1:00pm, 11 March 2024
On Power and Abuse
Speaker: Stephan Engelkamp
Date: 1:00-2:30pm, 27 March 2024
SSPP Workshop | On Researching Sensitive & Emotionally-Demanding Topics
Speakers: Harriet Aldrich, Christine Cheng , Kathryn Price, and Lucy Purnell
Date: 1:30-3:30pm, 12 June 2024
Interested in collaborating and/or proposing a session? Reach out to us!
Group leads
Ax:son Johnson Institute for Statecraft and Diplomacy Doctoral Fellow
Lecturer in War Studies
Senior Lecturer in Imperial and Global History
PhD Candidate
Contact us
We welcome pitches for future sessions and events. Please feel free to reach out!
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