Natalie’s research examines the relationship between law and social power through the lens of trauma. She sees trauma as a political concept – an event or a continuous reality charged with significant political meaning. This recognition of the political essence of traumatic events forms the basis of an emerging interdisciplinary network that Natalie is developing, named ‘Critical Trauma Studies’. This network brings together scholars, artists, practitioners and activists who investigate what can be discerned when looking at society through the prism of trauma.

Critical Trauma Studies builds upon critical Holocaust studies scholars such as Dominic LaCapra, Cathy Caruth, Saul Friedlander, Dori Laub and Shoshan Felman, as well as by authors, poets, and artists like Primo Levi, Paul Celan and Claude Lanzmann. It is also founded upon psychoanalytical theory, which provides critical tools with which to analyse both societal and individual responses to trauma, whether experienced or witnessed.

Natalie’s recent research projects focus on legal responses to violence against women and the Grenfell Tower fire in London in 2017. She also convenes the undergraduate module ‘Law, Testimony and Trauma’, where students examine legal responses to traumatic events, including genocides in different parts of the world, to shed light on the relationship between law and social power.

Email: N.Ohana@exeter.ac.uk