Call for Abstracts for the Online Symposium‘Social Trauma and Everyday Social Interaction’

Date: 28^th April 2026 (Tues Day)

RC49 Sociology of Mental Health and Illness

                                 Concept Note and Event Overview

The Research Committee 49 (RC49: Sociology of Mental Health and Illness) of the ‘International Sociological Association’ provides a global platform for the sociological study of mental health, mental illness, and the social systems that shape them. It brings together scholars examining the social conditions that influence mental well-being, the lived experiences of mental distress, and the evolving landscapes of mental health institutions and practices. Building on this mandate, RC49 is organising an online symposium on “Social Trauma and Everyday Social Interaction” to explore how social structures, inequalities, and daily social life intersect with trauma and well-being. The symposium will focus on social trauma, its origins, everyday manifestations, and consequences across diverse cultural and structural contexts. It aims to foster international and interdisciplinary dialogue on how inequalities, institutions, and social environments shape both trauma and resilience in contemporary societies. In the present context, communities and individuals around the world continue to face the long-term effects of inequality, discrimination, conflict, social and political isolation, and indignity in everyday interactions. These conditions create social trauma as a collective and structural phenomenon, impacting both individuals and groups (Erikson, 1976; Alexander, 2004). In contrast to psychological trauma, social trauma becomes embedded in the fabric of everyday life, shaping emotions, social interactions, aspirations, bodily experiences, expression, behaviours both individually and in communal way and encounters with institutions (Kleinman, 2006). In contexts marked by social exclusion, racial injustice, caste- and tribe-based discrimination, gendered violence, and socio-economic marginalisation, these harms are often normalised and rendered invisible through cultural practices, institutionalised norms and practices, social hierarchies, and bureaucratic routines (Guru, 2009; Bhoi, 2025; Farmer, 2004). As contemporary crises, including war and climate-related displacement and rising authoritarianism, continue to intensify, it becomes essential to examine how social trauma is produced, reproduced, lived, negotiated, and contested in everyday life (Muldoon et al., 2019).

The RC49 online symposium, “Social Trauma and Everyday Social Interaction,” invites scholars, researchers, practitioners, educators, activists, artists, and students to submit contributions examining how social trauma intersects with daily social life. Submissions may focus on historical and collective trauma, structural violence and inequality, education and youth experiences, embodied and affective dimensions of harm, the social dynamics of algorithmic and collective violence, and identity formation through social interaction. Contributions may also explore policy interventions, community-based healing practices, and creative or participatory research approaches that address, resist, or transform social trauma. The symposium welcomes theoretical analyses, empirical studies, methodological reflections, and community-based perspectives on social trauma. Through this collective conversation, the event seeks to advance sociological understanding of how trauma is produced in everyday contexts, illuminate strategies of resistance and solidarity, and envision new pathways toward trauma-informed, socially just futures.

 

Themes for Abstract and Paper Submission

1. Theme 1: Structural Violence, Inequality, and Collective Trauma in Global and Local Contexts

2. Theme 2: Social Interaction, Class, Race, Ethnicity, Tribe, and Everyday Experiences of Social Trauma

3. Theme 3: Resistance, Community-Based Practices, and Pathways of Healing Social Trauma

4. Theme 4: Policies, Pedagogies, and Legal Frameworks for Addressing and Transforming Social Trauma

Key Dates

• 15^th January 2026 – Submission of Abstract(300 words; include author name, affiliation, and email address)

• 20^th January 2026 – Notification of Acceptance

• 15^th March 2026 – Submission of Full Paper(6,000–7,500 words; MS Word; 12-point font; 1.5 spacing)

• 25^th April 2026 – Online Symposium
  

Abstracts and full papers may be submitted to: dhaneswar.bhoi@ed.ac.uk

Symposium Organiser:

Dr. Dhaneswar Bhoi, Honorary Fellow, University of Edinburgh, UK, Lecturer, Social Psychology and Mental Health, London School of Science and Technology, partnering with University of West London, De-Montford University, UK & Buckinghamshire New University, UK

References

Alexander, J. C. (2004). Toward a theory of cultural trauma. In J. C. Alexander, R. Eyerman, B. Giesen, N. J. Smelser, & P. Sztompka (Eds.), Cultural trauma and collective identity (pp. 1-30). Berkeley: University of California Press.

Bhoi, D. (2025). Caste, mental health and self-harm: emotive experiences of Dalit students at the Indian University. Contemporary South Asia, 33(4), 681–702. 

Farmer, P. (2004). Pathologies of power: Health, human rights, and the new war on the poor. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Guru, G. (2009). Humiliation: Claims and contexts. Oxford University Press.

Erikson, K. (1976). Everything in its path: Destruction of community in the Buffalo Creek flood. New York: Simon and Schuster.

Kleinman, A. (2006). What really matters: Living a moral life amidst uncertainty and danger. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Muldoon, O. T., Haslam, S. A., Haslam, C., Cruwys, T., Kearns, M., & Jetten, J. (2019). The social psychology of responses to trauma: social identity pathways associated with divergent traumatic responses. European Review of Social Psychology, 30(1), 311–348.