Critical Empathy: A Survivor's Study of Disaster

Abstract

Abstract:In October 2012, I joined a two-part panel with survivors and scholars of Hurricane Katrina (2005) and of the Japanese earthquake and tsunami (2011). Together, our presentations raised numerous questions, including these: how can official responses to disaster better meet the needs of survivors, and how can they draw on the local knowledge and resources survivors themselves provide? Although our methods differ, all the contributors to this issue emphasize locally generated ways of understanding disaster. In the case of Katrina, I have conducted research over the last decade on the circulation of hurricane survivors' narratives, showing how publications transform personal stories, consequently skewing public perceptions and diminishing recovery efforts. I advocate for different means of sharing personal narratives that foreground survivors' control over their stories and their communities. I share, with other survivor-ethnographers represented here, the belief that survivors are the experts on their own experiences, and as such, ought to have leading roles in rebuilding their lives.