Deploying Rose and Abi-Rached to 'make sense' of the rise of the 'brain sciences' in the field of violence against women

The neurosciences have been afforded increasing explanatory power in relation to a broad range of social issues, in fields as diverse as education, health, child protection, and criminal justice. Rose and Abi-Rached (2013) have termed the 2000s the decade of the 'brain sciences', the decade in which neuroscience dispersed from the laboratory and entered key sites of social and political discourse. This chapter engages with Rose and Abi-Rached's work to explore aspects of the uptake of a neurobiological approach to trauma in feminist sexual assault organisations. This is a field of practice, which with its origins in the second wave women's movement continues to be governed by an explicitly political social change agenda. Yet, in the Australian context, it has also been an 'early adopter' of the neuroscience of trauma. In this chapter, I first briefly the source of my interest in this issue as well as my engagement and discomfort with the positioning of trauma discourse in much feminist academic work. I then share some of my struggles in deciding how to use Rose and Abi-Rached's ideas to help me progress my own thinking and research.