Not Letting It Go: Anger, Empathy, and Interdisciplinarity as Trauma-Informed Approach

Abstract

Engaging with the interconnected dynamics of the classroom, this chapter draws from Audre Lorde's “Uses of Anger” to consider how empathy may be cultivated as a soft skill for stronger interpersonal relationships. Jocelyn E. Marshall highlights the need for mutual vulnerability between instructor and student, where vulnerability is understood to be a mode of resistance in regards to patriarchal and hegemonic higher education institutions and learning standards. By braiding queer feminisms with interdisciplinary approaches, the trauma-informed pedagogy upholds radical empathy as the linchpin to Lorde's advocating of articulating anger with precision, listening intensely, gaining new insight, and enacting change. In creating spaces to practice and further develop empathy, the trauma-informed pedagogical approach aims to empower students with agency and equip them with skills for self-accountability and holding others accountable.

Citation

Marshall, J.E. (2022), "Not Letting It Go: Anger, Empathy, and Interdisciplinarity as Trauma-Informed Approach", Marshall, J.E. and Skibba, C. (Ed.) Trauma-Informed Pedagogy, Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 157-171. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-80071-497-720221012