About Teaching Historical Racial Trauma (THRT)

Teaching Historical Racial Trauma (THRT) is a digital humanities project born out of a deep concern for how racial histories are misunderstood, misrepresented, or deliberately missing in contemporary education. At a time when book bans, curriculum restrictions, and public misinformation threaten to silence marginalized voices, THRT offers a scholarly and pedagogically rich space to confront these trends with truth, empathy, and critical insight.

Drawing from research on conceptual change in educational psychology, the project is grounded in an understanding of how deeply rooted misconceptions are formed, reinforced, and—crucially—transformed. While conceptual change theory has often been applied to topics in science education, THRT applies this framework to racial history and trauma, using narrative, evidence, and reflection to support unlearning and re-learning in both classroom practice and public understanding.

Rather than focusing solely on African American history or a single traumatic event, THRT acknowledges the ubiquity and intergenerational nature of racial trauma across many communities, including Indigenous peoples, immigrant populations, and other racialized groups. Whether through enslavement, displacement, exclusion, or violence, these histories are not only part of the American past but continue to shape individual and collective experience today.

Through peer-reviewed essays, multimedia StoryMaps, and recorded interviews with educators, scholars, and cultural leaders, THRT equips K–12 teachers with research-informed strategies, classroom-ready materials, and historical insights for teaching about racial trauma with care, clarity, and courage. This work is not just about teaching the past. It is about interrupting cycles of trauma and empowering students to build a more just future.