Violence, Trauma & Memory: The Causes and Impacts of Moral Injury

This seminar is co-hosted by the Affective Experience Lab of the Discovery Research Platform for Medical Humanities and the Violence, Trauma and Memory Research Theme at Durham University's Institute for Medical Humanities.

Brian Powers will explore the concept of Moral Injury as a phenomenon characterised by the enduring and sustained presence of negative moral emotions - guilt, shame, anger, and contempt - caused by the violation, betrayal, or suppression of deeply held or shared moral values. In dialogue with clinicians and mental health professionals, the conceptual languages of the humanities, notably those of religion and philosophy, have a critical part to play in illuminating the nature of moral injury as well as opening pathways to healing. Brian will talk about how his own research and the International Centre for Moral Injury play a part in the effort to improve care for those grappling with moral injury.

Andrea Lambell takes a biocultural approach to explore how moral injury emerged as a consequence of communication distress during and after the imposition of pandemic-era infection control measures in England. Drawing on surveys and interviews with health professionals, unpaid carers, and care recipients, she reveals how PPE and distancing disrupted communication, eroded trust, and triggered General Adaptation Syndrome, leading to long-term emotional and physiological distress. Andrea argues that these experiences were not isolated but part of a Potentially Morally Injurious Culture, shaped by structural violence, epistemic injustice, and leader exceptionalism. Her work highlights how the effects on unpaid carers and health professionals contributed to the destabilisation of England’s care infrastructure and calls for moral repair and systemic change.

About the speakers
The Reverend Dr. Brian Powers is the inaugural William Bernard Vann Fellow in Christianity and the Armed Forces at Durham University, a former Special Operations Weather Team officer in the U.S. Air Force and a veteran of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. He also serves as the executive director of Durham University’s International Centre for Moral Injury, an academic research centre dedicated to deepening the understanding of moral injury internationally and exploring, cultivating and sharing sources of recovery. He is a systematic and constructive theologian and author of Full Darkness: Original Sin, Moral Injury and Wartime Violence. He has written and presented extensively on the resonances between Augustinian doctrines of sin and moral injury and on the explanatory power of theological doctrine in situations of moral trauma resulting from wartime violence. Brian is an ordained Minister of Word and Sacrament in the Presbyterian Church (USA).

Dr Andrea Lambell is a Post-doctoral Research Associate in the Department of Anthropology, where she is part of the Wellcome-funded Reimagining Governance project exploring the effects of Durham University’s structures and processes on the wellbeing of its research community. She is also a co-director of the Wolfson Research Institute for Health and Wellbeing. She is a co-author of the Belonging at Durham report, an investigation into student experience which has led to Access and Participation policy change at Durham University. Before coming to Durham as a Masters student, Andrea spent 14 years as a massage therapist in a palliative care team serving the community of rural County Durham, during which time she gained a multidisciplinary BSc (Hons) with the Open University. Andrea’s PhD thesis explored the intersections of moral injury, epistemic injustice, structural violence, and conscious forgetting in the context of health and social care and emergency preparedness.

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This hybrid event is free to attend; the Zoom link will be circulated closer to the date.

If you have any accessibility requirements, please get in touch with us at imh.events@durham.ac.uk.