Higher Education, Memoir Pedagogy and Seeing the Self-in-Coalition: An Autoethnographic Witnessing of Contemporary Narratives in Trauma and Learning

Abstract

This dissertation is an autoethnographic witnessing of five contemporary memoirs, each involving themes related to childhood trauma and learning. Through a thematic analysis of the narratives using the coding of structural violence and willfulness, I both analyze emerging subthemes beneath these codes as they relate to trauma, reflecting on my autoethnographic learning through reading the five memoirs as a doctoral student with a trauma history. I connect this learning to research on colonialism and equity in higher education, as relates to gender, race, and space. This project examines how memoir holds the potential to serve as a catalyst in learning about self and other, through witnessing the role of structural violence and willfulness in the lives of individuals. Ultimately, I seek to illustrate how memoir might be leveraged as a tool in contemporary trauma-informed pedagogical practice.