Contested cultural heritage (un)be/longings: sensual, embodied, and gendered stories of trauma and healing
Article
Christou, A. 2025. Contested cultural heritage (un)be/longings: sensual, embodied, and gendered stories of trauma and healing. Heritage . 8 (3). https://doi.org/10.3390/heritage8030109
Type | Article |
---|---|
Title | Contested cultural heritage (un)be/longings: sensual, embodied, and gendered stories of trauma and healing |
Authors | Christou, A. |
Abstract | This article offers insights into conceptualizing a different angle of cultural heritage in its intangible form and generational inheritance, in relation to migrant community bonds and their impacts on embodied stories of trauma and healing. This article aims to contribute to understanding how cultural and historical knowledge of heritage is passed from one generation to the next, with deep emotional impacts, whether trauma or self-development. While engaging in an interdisciplinary dialogue with Bion’s work, we explore nodes of divergence and convergence in how gendered and embodied migrant sexuality/identity stories of trauma and healing exemplify the call for research to engage with perspectives of social and cultural differences. This understanding of contested cultural heritage and how belonging can be achieved links to ethnic–ancestral/national consciousness, as well as the struggle to belong among first- and second-generation migrants. The empirical data draws from extensive ethnographic, multi-method, multi-sited, comparative, and narrative research conducted with first- and second-generation migrants. The analysis is situated within Bion’s theory and articulated through an interpretative interdisciplinary framework aiming to unravel the complexity of the phenomena of mobility and identity construction. This analysis exemplifies the power dynamics inherent in migrant inter/intragenerational relations shaped by cultural heritage. |
Keywords | migration; cultural heritage; gender; identity; sexuality; trauma; belonging; healing |
Sustainable Development Goals | 3 Good health and well-being |
Middlesex University Theme | Health & Wellbeing |
Publisher | MDPI AG |
Journal | Heritage |
ISSN | |
Electronic | 2571-9408 |
Publication dates | |
Online | 18 Mar 2025 |
Mar 2025 | |
Publication process dates | |
Submitted | 13 Dec 2024 |
Accepted | 12 Mar 2025 |
Deposited | 19 Mar 2025 |
Output status | Published |
Publisher's version | License File Access Level Open |
Copyright Statement | © 2025 by the author. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
Digital Object Identifier (DOI) | https://doi.org/10.3390/heritage8030109 |
https://repository.mdx.ac.uk/item/21z7yz
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