Envisioning and Exploring Recovery from Moral Injury

An interdisciplinary conference taking place in person in Durham, UK
1.15pm on Monday 7 April to 1.15pm on Wednesday 9 April 2025

Registration is now open for this conference, which will highlight research and facilitate conversations on ways of envisioning social recovery from moral injury in a wide variety of cultural and vocational contexts. The presentations will come from a variety of academic disciplines and from people in various sectors with practical experiences of care for those with moral injury.

Confirmed speakers are shown below - in alphabetical order by first author - and a few more will be added as they are confirmed.

Ioannis Athanasiou (Church of England and Goldsmiths University of London) 
‘This is bigger than therapy’: Exploring the potential of coproduction to aid recovery for victims and survivors of abuse in the Christian faith communities

Amanda Bonson (Combat Stress and King’s College London) 
Restore and Rebuild (R&R): Developing a treatment for symptoms associated with moral injury

Eunil David Cho (Boston University) 
Experience of child soldiering on moral injury and moral agency development

Kristine Chong (Shay Moral Injury Center) 
Recalibrating repair: Depathologizing moral injury and orienting towards collective movements

Kevin Denholm (University of Otago and chaplain to the film industry in Aotearoa New Zealand) 
Behind the lens: Exploring moral injury and pathways to healing in Aotearoa New Zealand’s film industry

Jo Finch (University of Suffolk) and Cath Pickles (Restitute, a UK-based organisation supporting people caring for survivors of sexual or violent crime)
'You can't explain what it does to you…': Secondary systemic moral injury and the impact on parents/carers of children who have been sexually abused

Tenley Force (UNC Medical Center and Duke University) 
Repairing the healers: Moral repair as the missing step between moral injury and moral resilience in registered nurses

Aaron Fuller (Shay Moral Injury Center, US Navy Reserve, and Bratislava International Church in Slovakia) and Christopher Bowen (Roanoke College in the US)
More than “someone to talk to”: Possibilities for chaplaincy in leading collective moral repair and resiliency in institutions

Fiona Gardner (author of Love Song for a Wounded Warrior) 
Envisioning and exploring repair after moral injury

Brendan Geary (Marist Brothers, Durham University and the University of Glasgow) 
Clerical sex offenders and moral injury

Jane Grovijahn (Our Lady of the Lake University, USA)
The provocative power of minoritized bodies and moral injury

Rosemary Kellison (Florida State University) 
How moral injury complicates moral repair

Angela Kennedy (Innovating for Wellbeing Ltd and Trauma Informed Community Action CIC) 
Rediscovering rewarding working lives

Peter Kingori (Kenya Methodist University and Centre for Character and Leadership) and Scholastica Bacha (Mount Kenya University)
Moral injuries in teachers redeployed in high risk areas: A case study of Garissa County

Rhona Knight (Durham University) 
Sacrifice by association: A moral injury too far?

Nicole Le Jeune
Trauma and moral injury in the Didache

Jennifer Loop (Admirato and Durham University) 
Horizons of recovery: Bearing witness to moral injury in the lives of adult survivors of childhood incest

Timothy Mallard (Durham University) 
Deeply held values, principles and beliefs: Moral injury and and the ethics of regulating modern and future war

Phil McEvoy (Age UK and psychotherapist in private practice) 
Moral injury in care partners of people with dementia: A psychodynamic perspective

Gill McGill (Northumbria University Newcastle), Shannon Allen (Northumbria University Newcastle) and Brian Powers (Durham University)
LGBT+ veterans and moral injury: Addressing the legacy of the UK military gay ban policy

Dayne Nix (US Naval War College) 
It's the poetry! Insights for understanding and treating moral injury

Alison O'Connor, Sophie Redlin and Simon Edwards (Moral Injury Partnership)
‘I’m not alone’: Sharing the findings from Reflect and Renew, a feasibility study into the effectiveness of a group-based intervention for moral injury in frontline workers across occupational groups

Chrisie Pullin, Nikki Power and Laura Radcliffe (University of Liverpool)
A systematic literature review of moral injury in pre-hospital emergency personnel: Causes, experiences and coping mechanisms

Stephen Radley (University of Roehampton, London) 
The camera never lies: The challenges and opportunities of participant photography as a pathway toward the restoration of social trust to promote recovery from moral injury

Michael Robinson (University of Birmingham)
A home fit for heroes? Great War veterans in 1930s Britain

Mark Santow (Providence Clemente Veterans' Initiative and University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth) 
Bruises on the soul: Moral injury, the humanities and the Providence Clemente Veterans Initiative

Morven Shearer (University of St Andrews)
Moral challenge: Prevention is better than cure

Atsushi Shibaoka (University of Divinity, Australia)
Envisioning recovery, re-envisioning moral injury: A theological perspective 

David Smith (Birmingham City University)
Natural justice, natural law, moral conscience and moral injury: Drawing a conceptual line

Sue Spencer (freelance facilitator and independent scholar) 
Glimmers and sites of possibility: A poetic inquiry into recovery from career failure in healthcare

Fiona Sweeney (NHS and Nottingham Trent University), Rahmanara Chowdhury, Iram Shah and Belinda Winder (all at Nottingham Trent University)
‘It’s not recovery, it’s discovery’: A phenomenological understanding of moral injury experienced by service users detained in forensic psychiatric settings

Elizabeth Tillman (UCONN School of Medicine and Hospital of Central Connecticut) 
The consequences of moral injury: A case scenario in capitalist medicine

Pascale Waschnig and Kitrina Douglas (University of West London)
Shattered trust: The silent wounds of moral injury in relatives of missing people

 

Venue

The conference will take place at Durham University in the North East of England. The venue will be St Chad's College (pictured) which is in the historic city centre and 20 metres from Durham's World Heritage Site which comprises the magnificent Norman cathedral and castle in their dramatic position on top of the steep wooded banks of the River Wear.

 

Registration

The standard registration fee is £260 (GBP); students are eligible to register for the subsidised registration fee of £190. This registration fee includes refreshments, dinner on 7 April, and lunch and dinner on 8 April.

In addition, some overnight accommodation at the conference venue, St Chad's College, is available to book as part of the registration process. Single en-suite rooms including breakfast are £74.40 (GBP) per night. They will be available for the nights of 7 and 8 April on a first-come-first-served basis. Please note that there is no parking at St Chad's College and city centre parking costs in the region of £11 per 24 hours; therefore if you are travelling by car you might wish to consider using alternative overnight accommodation. 

The registration deadline is 11.59pm on Thursday 13 March 2024. If you would like to receive a reminder to register for the conference, please ensure you are on our mailing list.

To book your place, please visit our conference registration webpage, click on "Book Event", and follow the instructions. 

 

Questions?

If you have any questions about the conference please do not hesitate to contact us at icmi@durham.ac.uk.