research

the stories we tell

My research attempts to explore the interface between psyche and society. My interests centre broadly on PLACE IDENTITY, (NOT) BELONGING and RELATIONALITY – how our performances of race, class, masculinities and femininities are enacted in social, material and physical landscapes. On a relational level, I am intrigued by the workings of power, desire, and affect in our identity constructions; how these might play out in our intimate and social relationships as we struggle and strive for recognition.

How do we co-create our relational, social, spatial and material worlds?

How do we perform identity and belonging through our talk (stories), our affects (feelings) and our bodies-in-space in our ordinary everyday doings?

What kinds of social asymmetries are produced as a result?

Why do we repeat these performances?

As a critical qualitative researcher, I view the social world as illusory and distorted. Attending to snippets of talk, conversation, stories or discourse, my research attempts to interrogate the surface to visibilise the underlying threads that stitch together the social fabric of our world. I see myself as part of this social fabric – not just an observer or witness but an active participant. From a critical perspective, I am interested in how our alienated (unrequited) belongings might be performed in contradictory (un)conscious ways in our intimate, interpersonal and collective relations with others.

“Storytelling is a coping strategy that involves making words stand for the world, and then, by manipulating them, changing one’s experience of the world.”

— Jackson, 2002

Selected Publications

Book Chapters

Lau, U. (2023). Enter canon e Lacan: rompendo espaços para o returno do recalcado. [Originally published in English as "Between Fanon and Lacan: Rupturing spaces for the return of the oppressed"]. In A. Guerra, D. Hook, & R. Lima (Eds.), Ubuntu: Psicanálise e herança colonial [Ubuntu: Psychoanalysis and Colonial Heritage] (pp. 178). São Paulo, Brazil: n-1 Edições. (Translated by Enrico Poletti).
Lau, U., Durrheim, K., & Saville Young, L. (2020). Place detachment and the psychology of nonbelonging: Lessons from Diepsloot informal settlement. In C. Raymond, L. Manzo, D. Williams, D. Von Wirth & A. Di Masso (Eds.), Changing senses of place: Navigating global challenges.
Lau, U., & Seedat, M. (2017). Structural violence and the struggle for recognition: Examining community narratives in a post-apartheid democracy. In D. Christie & S. Suffla (Eds.), Enlarging the Scope of Peace Psychology: African and World-Regional Contributions. Cham, Switzerland: Springer.
Lau, U. Suffla, S., & Kgatitswe, L.B. (2017). Catalysing transformation through stories: Building peace in recognition, struggle and dialogue. In M. Seedat, S. Suffla & D. Christie (Eds.), Emancipatory and participatory methodologies in peace, critical, and community psychology (pp. 147-163). Cham, Switzerland: Springer.

Journal Articles

Lau, U. (2021). Between Fanon and Lacan: rupturing spaces for the return of the oppressed. Studies in Gender and Secuality, 22(4): Special Issue: Fanon, Southern Theory, and Psychoanalysis.
Lau, U. (2017). Storylines in psychology: Rewriting or rehearsing colonial scripts? Response to ‘Frantz Fanon and the decolonial turn in psychology’. South African Journal of Psychology, 47(4), 442-445.
Lau, U. & Stevens, G. (2010). Exploring the psychological exteriority and interiority of men’s violence against women. Journal of Psychology in Africa, 20(4), 623-634.
Lau, U. & Stevens, G. (2012). Textual transformations of subjectivity in men’s ‘talk’ of intimate partner violence. Feminism & Psychology, 22(4), 423-442.
Lau, U., & Seedat, M. (2015). The community story, relationality and process: Bridging tools for researching local knowledge in a peri-urban township. Journal of Community and Applied Social Psychology, 25(4).
Lau, U., & Seedat, M. (2013). Towards relationality: Interposing the dichotomy between peace and violence. South African Journal of Psychology, 43(4), 482-493.
Lau, U., Seedat, M. & McRitchie, V. (2011). Discursive constructions of the Israeli-Hezbollah war: The struggle for representation. American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences, 28(2), 1-33.
Lau, U., Seedat, M. & Suffla, S. (2010). Collective violence: Explaining the explanations. African Safety Promotion Journal, 8(2), 1-19.
Lau, U. & van Niekerk, A. (2011). Re-storying the self: An exploration of young burn survivors’ narratives of resilience. Qualitative Health Research, 21(19), 1165 – 1181.

Selected Presentations

Lau, U. (2014). Narrating the self and ‘other’ in the post-apartheid landscape: An exploration of home and spatial belonging in South Africa. BISR Conference on ‘Inside/Outside/In-Between: Perspectives on Space, Power and Subjectivities’, Birbeck Institute for Social Research, University of London, UK, 9-11 May.
Lau, U. (2016). Response to keynote address by Prof. Maldonado-Torres: What is a decolonized community?: A Fanonian meditation’. 6th International Conference on Community Psychology, Durban, 27-31 May.
Lau, U. (2020). Traumatic ruptures in belonging: (Un)veiling horror, fear and desire in the making of home in post-apartheid Johannesburg. Paper presented at the Association for the Psychoanalysis of Culture & Society, Rutgers University, New Jersey, 16 October.
Lau, U., Seedat, M., Buthelezi, S. F., Lekoba, T. R., Mochudi, M., & Nkadimeng, S. (2014). Emplotting identity, power and positionality: Relational engagements in community entry. 28th International Conference on Applied Psychology, Paris, France.
Lau, U., & Seedat, M. (2013). Mutual Journeys: A relational approach to transformation through Community Storylines. Presented at the 9th Congress of the European Community Psychology Association, Naples, Italy, 7-11 November.
Lau, U. & Stevens, G. (2007). Men’s subjective experiences of violence toward intimate partners. Presented at the 4th Asian Regional Conference on Safe communities, Bangkok, Thailand, 21-24 November.
Lau, U. & van Niekerk, A. (2010). Narrating identity through trauma: An exploration of young burn survivors’ constructions of self. Presented at the 19th International Safe Communities Conference Sustainability of Safe Community Programs, Suwon, Korea, 23-26 March.