Bildiğimiz Akademinin Sonu:: Travma Politikasına Karşı Kollektif Hafıza İnşası

Abstract

This article intends to open up a discussion over the assertion that a calculated trauma policy is among the chief factors preparing the end of academia as we know it. We exemplify the impacts of a guided trauma policy in reference to devastating social incidents and academic purges of the recent past; namely the dismissals of Academics for Peace, failed coup of 15 July and the experiences of students whose universities were shut down by a statutory decree. We hold that defining trauma by relying only on individuals’ experiential reflections ends in a deficient and flawed definition of the phenomenon. We posit that it is hardly possible to develop effective intervention approaches without taking into account the collective projections of trauma. We maintain that trauma-generating catastrophic social incidents are meant to be experienced collectively on one hand, yet the same experience is besieged to hinder its transformation into a collective memory on the other. We emphasize that controllability rather than predictability is the main tenet in understanding the collectively experienced trauma. We emphasize the need for expanding the scope of the definition of the phenomenon by referring to the studies concerning collective traumas experienced during the recent academic purge. We propose that a functional intervention strategy to develop restorative approaches against the detrimental effects of a guided trauma policy calls for building a collective memory. We envisage that the intervention processes which are not developed collectively would limit ameliorating and improving impacts and make it difficult to transfer acquisitions into real life settings. We posit that setting up the academia anew or carrying it beyond what we have known of it may be realized through building up and maintaining the collective memory of collectively experienced traumas