*Deadline Extended* NeMLA Panel (March 6-9, 2025 in Philadelphia): Landscapes of Trauma
How should we understand the relationship between land and trauma? In what senses can we think of a landscape as traumatic or traumatized? There are the traumas that may happen upon a landscape through the dispossession of peoples from a piece of land or through war and destruction. There is the direct harm done to a landscape that might not even have human occupants on it through the effects of pollution or clearcutting. And there are the transformations that landscapes go through when storms, wildfires, and floods happen upon them. Are these also types of trauma? How shall we distinguish between different kinds of events? How shall we identify the traumatized parties? Can a landscape itself be traumatized or only its inhabitants?