For two weeks this spring, students gathered in the Kindred Credit Union Centre for Peace Advancement at Conrad Grebel University College for deep listening, personal reflection, collective storytelling, and healing. They came to participate in a new Master of Peace and Conflict Studies course called Radical Healing: Re-storying Trauma, Resilience and Justice, which was taught by Dr. Johonna McCants-Turner, Associate Professor of Peace and Conflict Studies and a Centre for Peace Advancement Research Fellow.
The course explored frameworks of radical healing that challenge dominant narratives of trauma and resilience. Rather than individualizing trauma or viewing resilience as mere survival, students engaged with frameworks that emphasized collective resilience, cultural and structural sources of trauma, and hope, imagination, and resistance as necessary pathways to wholeness. Through Black feminist pedagogy, Indigenous relational storytelling, and arts-based methods, students were invited to ask: What does it mean to heal together? What does justice require from us, not only politically but personally?
Each class session was intentionally structured to foster connection, reflection, and engagement. Classes began with a gathering circle to help encourage engagement and the environment was designed with accessibility and comfort in mind: with lights dimmed, movement while respecting your own and others’ spaces encouraged, and students invited to share their access needs at the start of the course. Together, the group co-created community agreements, emphasizing care, confidentiality, and shared responsibility for the time together. “We’re not just talking about healing, we’re practicing it,” Dr. McCants-Turner said. “The course was deeply rooted in feminist and decolonial pedagogy. We moved away from the traditional lecture model and toward something relational, creative, and collaborative.”
Throughout the course, students engaged with visual art, poetry, and narrative practices. They reflected not only on trauma, but on healing through the body, through storytelling, and through community. They watched a film that addressed sexual abuse and collective healing, engaging the content with care and vulnerability. They read and discussed What It Takes to Heal by Prentis Hemphill and questioned dominant narratives that cause harm while imagining alternatives rooted in justice and love.
Guest speakers brought powerful insights and diverse perspectives into the classroom. Two student organizers from the Palestinian Youth Movement spoke about activism, resilience, and radical hope in the face of ongoing genocide in Gaza. Dr. Kimberly Lopez led a body mapping workshop, guiding students through a narrative and arts-based research method she uses in her advocacy with personal support workers. Julian McCants-Turner shared moving stories of police violence, racial trauma, and the healing power of imagining a world beyond carceral systems. And Charlotte Hancock joined the class to share her art practice, offering a moment of unexpected connection through her pop-up exhibit for Accessibility Week in the Grebel Gallery.
Some of the presenters also came from within the course. Master of Theological Studies student Sadie Ingle, co-curator of the current Grebel Gallery exhibit “Art is Always Conflict,” brought unique insight and leadership, inviting her classmates to engage with the artwork not just visually, but relationally. She facilitated a tour of the gallery, connecting the pieces to course themes and prompting rich discussions. A couple of class activities were held in the gallery space, reinforcing the idea that healing is not limited to conversation, it’s something we can see, feel, and experience in a shared space.
Nancy Williams, another student participating in the course, facilitated a land-based learning session that offered students an embodied experience of healing through gardening and smudging with sage. The activity brought students outside, reminding them of the role that land, place, and Indigenous knowledge play in collective healing practices.
“There were moments I couldn’t have planned,” Dr. McCants-Turner recalled. “Students stepped into leadership, made connections I hadn’t anticipated, and brought their whole selves into the learning experience.” One student described the course this way: “This course creates space for transformational learning. It draws you in beyond intellectual studies and into personal growth.”
Through the embodied experience of the Radical Healing course, students learned that healing and justice are not separate projects. They are interdependent, and both are necessary if we’re serious about building a more compassionate and fairer world.
By Pinar Gurgen