Narratives of Moral Injury in European and International Contexts

Our most recent conference was held in April 2024, when we were delighted to be joined by 50 academics, clinicians, chaplains and others to discuss moral injury in European and international contexts.

The full programme is shown below. Where the talk or session title is a hyperlink, there is an associated resource.

 

April 2024 Conference Programme

Introductory session

Welcome by Brian Powers (International Centre for Moral Injury, Durham University)

Wendy Cooper (International Centre for Moral Injury, Durham University):
Moral injury in context and the importance of understanding the contextual response

Session 1: Investigating moral injury and questioning assumptions

Colette Hawkins (South Tees NHS Foundation Trust):
Defying death: Do we risk moral injury by medicalising the end of life?
The link above takes you to the Powerpoint slides for the conference presentation. A longer version of this presentation is also available as a video recorded as part of our webinar series: Dying well? Moral issues in care towards the end of life

Cher McGillivray (Bond University, Australia):
Measuring and responding to moral injury experienced by non-offending parents in situations of child maltreatment

Session 2: Moral injury and the church

Aaron Fuller (Shay Moral Injury Center, Volunteers of America):
It's not burnout: Moral injury as a lens to reframe and address church decline in Europe and North America

Rhona Knight (Durham University, UK):
Great expectations, moral injury and the church

Maggi Creese (Diocese of Newcastle, UK), Sarah Troughton (NHS psychiatrist with lived experience of church-related abuse), David Creese (Newcastle University, survivor of church-related abuse) and Peter Locke (organist and composer, survivor of church-related abuse):
Moral injury and church-related abuse: A new framework for ritual created by survivors
The link above takes you to a longer version of this presentation that was recorded as part of our webinar series.

Evening session: Film screening 

The UK premiere of What I Want You to Know, an intimate documentary film about the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. With searing candour, veterans share personal stories from their deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan, and explore the moral tragedy of their wars.

Followed by a discussion with the film’s director Catie Foertsch and film participant and veteran Garett Reppenhagen

Session 3: Moral injury narratives and the role of chaplains in the Australian context: A bio-psycho-social-spiritual approach to prevention and treatment 

Mark Layson (Charles Sturt University) and Lindsay Carey (La Trobe University)

Session 4: Moral injury, health and social care

Andrea Lambell (Durham University, UK):
Distancing, PPE, and moral distress in England’s hidden health and care landscape, 2020-22

Amelia Pearson, Catherine Robinson, Rebecca McPhillips, Paul Clarkson, Janine Owens (all University of Manchester, UK) and Eleanor Hinchliffe (South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, UK):
Agent of the state vs advocate for people: An exploration of English social workers’ experiences of moral injury

Elanor Webb (St Andrew's Healthcare and University of Central Lancashire, UK), Jane Ireland and Michael Lewis (University of Central Lancashire):
Pathways from moral injury: Exploring associated wellbeing outcomes and the mediating role of emotional schema

Session 5: Australasian contexts and categories for moral injury

Atsushi Shibaoka (University of Divinity, Australia):
Moral injury as a war syndrome: An historical approach

Matthew Hawkins (University of Otago, New Zealand):
Third match official decision pending: The evidence of moral injury in elite sport?

Session 6: Conceptualising moral injury in Asian and African contexts

Kristine Chong (Shay Moral Injury Center, Volunteers of America) and Jeeyoung Kim (University of Denver and Iliff School of Theology):
Postmemory and countermemory retrievals of morally injurious histories by the Korean diaspora

Xiaoge Wang (Durham University, UK): 
The unspeakable truth: Japanese shame culture in An Artist of the Floating World

Assala Khettache (Aberystwyth University, UK):
Exploring the consequences of neglect: The weaponization of collective moral injuries in African societies

Evening session: Photography exhibition
Afghanistan Veterans: Moral Injury and Righting Wrongs

Sara de Jong (University of York, UK), Andy Barnham (photographer and British Army veteran) and Marcus Grotian (Patenschaftsnetzwerk Afghanische Ortskräfte, or Sponsorship Network for Afghan Local Staff, Germany)

Session 7: Examining and responding to moral injury

Lily An-Kim (McMaster Divinity College, Canada):
Moral watermarks at the margins: Entering endangered waters after injuries to matriarchs

Dayne Nix (US Naval War College):
The lasting impact of moral injury on war veterans: G. A. Studdert Kennedy's struggle against the glorification of war by observances of Armistice Day and Britain's war memorials, 1921-1929

Stephen Radley (University of Roehampton, UK):
Creating new theologies of war from the embodied experience of moral injury through photographic practices of visio divina

Session 8: Workshop on Reflect and Renew, a retreat-based intervention for moral injury in frontline workers

Simon Edwards, Alison O'Connor and Sophie Redlin (Moral Injury Partnership, UK)

Closing session

Reflections by Zachary Moon (Chicago Theological Seminary, USA)