Moral Injury Webinar Series

 

Next webinars

 

Thursday 1 October 2026

Moral injury in healthcare: A personal journey of injury and healing
Dr Elizabeth Tillman (US physician)

7pm BST | 8pm CEST | 11am PDT | 2pm EDT

Elizabeth Tillman is a physician in the United States. Describing this upcoming webinar, she says, "The corporatisation of medicine in the United States has resulted in minimising the voice of and demoralizing physicians, forcing practitioners into complicity with profit prioritization, financial incentives, and public perception. Caught in this intensifying web of moral injury for 13 years, I broke down psychologically two years ago, my identity blurred. The past two years have been a period of significant recovery. Reflecting on this journey, I've identified six constructs which were of pivotal importance: Naming and Framing, Community, Distance, Self-Advocacy, Advocacy for Others, and Hope. My training isn't psychiatric or psychological; thus I will offer a lay-person's description of what has been helpful. I will explain each of these constructs and then include examples of how each was of benefit and why. My goal is to shed light on one individual's recovery process, hoping that these stepping stones will be of help for others, will spark conversation, will contribute to treatment protocols, and will inspire further research."

Elizabeth is an expert by experience and will be in conversation with our Executive Director Brian Powers. Registration for this session will open shortly.

 

Wednesday 4 November 2026

The invisibility of war trauma: Mental health, violence and literature in interwar Britain and Italy
Dr Stefano Serafini (Georgetown University and the University of Padua)

A hybrid event being held in the Confluence Building, Lower Mountjoy, in Durham and online at 4pm-5.15pm GMT (UK time) - co-organised with the Institute of Medical Humanities

In this hybrid session, Stefano Serafini will explore a largely overlooked literary figure of the First World War: the veteran who appears to have “come through” unscathed, returns to civilian life, and functions outwardly well, yet whose war damage re-emerges belatedly in acts of violence that are never recognised as consequences of the conflict. Rather than concentrating on visibly broken soldiers, he will turn to apparently untroubled ex-servicemen whose destructiveness is systematically misread. Drawing on interwar literary texts from Britain and Italy, and combining historically informed close reading with a comparative analysis of scientific and socio-political discourses in both countries, Stefano will explore these works as key sites for negotiating war trauma and violence. Through the figure of the invisibly damaged veteran, they test the limits of contemporary efforts to grasp the psychic afterlife of the war.

Stefano is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Postdoctoral Fellow at Georgetown University and the University of Padua (2024–27). The session will be co-chaired by Katrin Wehling-Giorgio (Co-Director of the Institute for Medical Humanities and Affiliate Member of the International Centre for Moral Injury) and Brian Powers (Executive Director of the International Centre for Moral Injury and Fellow of the Institute for Medical Humanities).

In-person attendees are invited to stay for drinks and informal conversation at 5.15pm local time.

Find out more / register for online or in-person attendance

 

Monday 30 November 2026

Embattled belief: Religion and the British Army from Korea to Afghanistan
Canon Prof. Michael Snape (Durham University)

7pm GMT (UK time) | 8pm CET | 11am PST | 2pm EST

For this session we will be joined by Michael Snape for a discussion of his new book, Embattled Belief: Religion and the British Army from Korea to Afghanistan (Cambridge University Press, 2026), which examines the neglected role of religion in the British Army in an era of rapid and far-reaching change. Covering the Cold War, the end of empire, seismic shifts in Britain's cultural and religious landscape, and the dramatic shrinkage of the armed forces, the book reveals religion's abiding importance at an institutional, individual and operational level. In it, he explores the religious contexts of the Army's warfighting, counterinsurgency and peacekeeping operations, including the Korean, Falklands and Gulf Wars; the 'Emergencies' in Malaya, Kenya and Cyprus; the Northern Ireland conflict; UN and NATO operations in the Balkans; and Iraq and Afghanistan after 9/11. He also charts the religious responses of British soldiers to allies, adversaries and civilian populations. This is a welcome contribution to our understanding of the secularisation of British society, the social and cultural history of the British Army, and religion and war in the contemporary world.

Michael Snape is the Michael Ramsey Professor of Anglican Studies at Durham University; he has published extensively on the history of religion and conflict in the English-speaking world. 

Registration for this webinar will open in October.

 

Recordings from previous webinars

Please note that only the speaker and host are recorded. Webinars include around 45 minutes audience discussion that is not recorded.

The video of the recent presentation on the wellbeing of retired UK military chaplains will be shown here shortly.