Ethnography as Healing: Trauma-Informed Approaches to Anthropology
- Gabriele Carmelo Rosato
- Jul 7
- 2 min read
Updated: Jul 11
On July 10, 2025, I will present at the 10th Ethnography and Qualitative Research International Conference, held at the University of Trento. My talk is part of the panel “Theorising ethnography across disciplines and methodological approaches” convened by Ester Gallo and Chiara Bassetti, which will take place from 4:15 to 7:15 p.m. in the Sociology Building, Room 7.
When Ethnography Becomes a Healing Space
My presentation is based on a 14-months research project that employed trauma-informed ethnography to explore how child sexual abuse (CSA) affects survivors’ perception of space—especially the home. Through qualitative interviews, visual ethnography, and innovative tools such as verbal maps, I investigated how trauma manifests in spatial relationships, turning once-familiar environments into haunted, emotionally charged places. The project aimed to understand how these spaces can be transformed into safe, meaningful environments through narrative and participatory practices.
Ethnography as Transformative Process
Ethnography, in this context, was not merely a methodological choice—it became a shared process of meaning-making. Participants were not passive sources of data, but co-creators of knowledge. For 25 of the 31 participants, interviews were described as “helpful” or “therapeutic” even if the intent was not clinical. These narrative spaces became liminal zones where healing could begin.
Bodies, Spaces, and Spectral Memory
Drawing on Freud’s notion of the uncanny and Derrida’s hauntology, the analysis explored how trauma lingers in spaces—through silences, absences, and emotional residues. Participants captured and shared photos, videos, and sketches of rooms, objects, and corners of their homes that held meaning in their healing processes. These visual narratives revealed the home as a liminal site: both a sanctuary and a site of haunting.
My intervention positions ethnography as an adaptive, interdisciplinary, and ethically grounded method that can both explore and accompany processes of healing.
It proposes that research, especially on trauma, must not only collect narratives—but also help rebuild the spaces where those narratives can be safely told. Ethnography, in this sense, becomes not only a way of seeing, but a way of staying with.
The slides are available for download below.
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