Writing During Genocide: Collective Trauma, and the Stages of Destruction

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Writing During Genocide: Gaza, Collective Trauma, and the Stages of Destruction

What does it mean to research and write about genocide while the destruction of your own homeland is unfolding, and while your family and community remain directly at risk?

Dr. Ayman Nijim, a Gazan scholar whose work focuses on liberation psychology, will offer a deeply personal and accessible exploration of Gaza, collective trauma, and the experience of documenting destruction as it happens. Drawing on his doctoral dissertation, written during the ongoing war in Gaza, Dr. Nijim will bring together scholarship, lived experience, and personal testimony to examine what he identifies as the distinctive characteristics of the genocide in Gaza and the profound psychological consequences for individuals and communities.

Dr. Nijim will explore how recognized stages and processes of genocide can be understood in the context of Gaza, as well as the ways collective trauma is experienced, projected, and transmitted across communities and generations. He will also consider how the scale and nature of the destruction challenge conventional frameworks for understanding genocide, trauma, survival, and recovery.

At the heart of the program is a more intimate question: What does it mean to be both a scholar and a witness when the subject of your research is also the lived reality of your family, your community, and your homeland?

Rather than a conventional academic lecture, Dr. Nijim will invite the audience into a human-centered conversation about witnessing and documenting mass violence while it is still unfolding. His presentation will connect the experience of Gaza with broader questions about genocide prevention, human rights, collective responsibility, and the obligations of people and institutions watching from outside.

Through scholarship, personal reflection, and audience engagement, the evening will offer an opportunity not only to better understand the psychological and human dimensions of Gaza, but also to consider what it means to witness suffering, how communities carry collective trauma, and what responsibilities accompany our awareness of events taking place beyond our own borders.

Presented by the Windham World Affairs Council as part of its ongoing commitment to fostering informed public dialogue about critical global issues.

Doors open at 6:30 p.m. The program begins at 7:00 p.m.

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The Windham World Affairs Council was founded in 1961 to bring the world to Windham County. It is the smallest of the World Affairs Councils of America and has an all-volunteer board. It hosts lectures, films, and other events on global topics, as well as a monthly Members’ Salon, where members and their guests gather informally to discuss topics of the day. For further information about future events, or if you would like to consider joining the board, visit https://windhamworldaffairscouncil.org/.

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