This edited book focuses on the role of scholars in studying their own individual traumas, exploring the complex interplay between personal trauma and scholarly engagement. It gathers a diverse range of contributions, including an essay, seven articles and an insightful interview. The authors discuss the emotional, ethical and intellectual challenges they faced in the research and representation of their traumas. They examine how personal and collective wounds shape individual identities, community narratives, and broader societal dynamics in Europe, Asia, Australia, and the Americas from the 1930s to the present. The causes of trauma are multifaceted and include the current war in the Middle East, school shootings in the USA, the AIDS crisis in South Africa, genocides such as the Holodomor and the Holocaust, nuclear warfare during the Second World War and childhood abuse.

Following the diverse methodologies employed in trauma studies, this volume reflects multidisciplinary backgrounds and will be beneficial for students, scholars and researchers of literature, film studies, history, psychology, musicology, and visual art.

The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of Life Writing.