Can the traumatised speak? Towards a third wave of trauma theory emerging from racialised political community

In this thesis, I examine how racialised political communities, through anti-racism activism, conceptualise and articulate trauma discourses. Using a narrative enquiry approach, I conduct case studies in Luxembourg and Australia to explore the evolving role of trauma within anti-racism activism—an increasingly relevant field in social justice work, globally. Luxembourg is analysed as a supposedly post-racial society and Australia is analysed as a settler-colonial state. The main objective of the study therefore is to examine how anti-racism activists construct and engage with the concept of trauma in their political work. As such, I investigate both the meanings attached to trauma and the social processes that shape its construction.

Drawing on the knowledge and practices of Black, Indigenous, Peoples of Colour (BIPOC) in both case studies, the findings challenge dominant conceptualisations of trauma as primarily a condition of suffering, offering a more nuanced understanding that positions trauma as a site of knowledge production, agency, and political resistance. Through both theoretical and empirical inquiry, this thesis makes a significant contribution by proposing a third wave of trauma theory. I critically reframe trauma, asking the pivotal question, ‘Can the traumatised speak?’ This emerging wave of trauma theory draws from the epistemologies of racialised political communities, reframing trauma not as a debilitating force, but as a generative catalyst for solidarity, resistance, power, and agency. This shift represents a profound advancement in how we understand trauma and its potential for social and political transformation.