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Virginia Tech

Trauma and the PhD

Abstract

dc:description.abstract

In writing this autoethnography, I invite you to enter into my world. It is not a world that is easy, or altogether happy. In the end, though, it is a story of survival and of perseverance. Trauma touches almost every person in some way. War, sexual abuse, physical and emotional abuse, death, and difficult life events color how we make sense of the world. Trauma may happen in one blinding moment or slowly eat away at us for years. Writing is often a way to cope with that trauma. This dissertation represents a small portion of my traumatic lived experiences that led me up to the doctoral process, and those that occurred in the ten years it took me to complete my dissertation.

Degree

thesis:*
Name thesis:degree_name
Doctor of Philosophy
Level thesis:degree_level
doctoral
Discipline thesis:degree_discipline
Curriculum and Instruction
Department dc:contributor.department
Education, Vocational-Technical
Grantor dc:publisher
Virginia Tech
Year dc:date.issued
2021

Author and committee

dc:creator, dc:contributor.*
Author dc:creator
  • Smart-Smith, Pamela Cristina
Chair dc:contributor.committeechair
  • Tilley-Lubbs, Gresilda A.
Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember
  • McCloud, Jennifer Sink
  • Garrison, James W.
  • Kreye, Bettibel Carson

Subjects

dc:subject × 6

Rights

dc:rights
Statement dc:rights
  • In Copyright

Identifiers

dc:identifier.*
Dc Identifier Other
vt_gsexam:30677
OAI identifier oai:identifier
oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/103887

Chain of custody

source
Harvested from
Virginia Tech
Base URL
vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/oai/request
Last updated
2026-07-22
Source record
OAI-PMH GetRecord
citation

Smart-Smith, Pamela Cristina. Trauma and the PhD. doctoral thesis, Virginia Tech, 2021. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/103887