Program

Research Programs: Collaborative Research

Period of Performance

10/1/2016 - 6/30/2019

Funding Totals

$180,000.00 (approved)
$140,338.18 (awarded)


Reparative Justice and Moral Injury among Post-Deployment Soldiers

FAIN: RZ-249909-16

Georgia State University Research Foundation, Inc. (Atlanta, GA 30302-3999)
Andrew I. Cohen (Project Director: December 2015 to August 2022)
Jennifer Anne Samp (Co Project Director: February 2016 to August 2022)

A multidisciplinary study of the impact of moral injury on members of the armed forces through structured focus groups guided by philosophical questions.

In this project, we draw together a multidisciplinary team of scholars and experts to investigate how the humanities can synthesize the lived experience of soldiers who have endured the discrepant experiences of moral injury. Humanists will collaborate with field investigators to explore core unresolved questions about how to understand and interpret moral injury. The results of this study will advance understandings of the normative significance of moral injury for relationships between armed forces members and their families, their communities, and the state.





Associated Products

Managing Moral Injury Post-Deployment (Book Section)
Title: Managing Moral Injury Post-Deployment
Author: Andrew I. Cohen
Author: Jennifer A. Samp
Editor: Daniel Cochece Davis
Editor: Lance R. Lippert
Editor: Robert D. Hall
Editor: Aimee E. Miller-Ott
Abstract: Recent international military engagements inspired scholars and clinicians to consider the psychological impacts of military service. Increasing numbers of solders are returning from deployments in Iraq or Afghanistan. This particularly re-ignited interest in the psychological impacts of military service. In this chapter, we discuss the challenges of understanding and communicating about a new concept of traumatic stress: moral injury
Year: 2020
Access Model: anthology
Publisher: Lexington Books
Book Title: Communicating Mental Health
ISBN: 9781498578011

“Rest, Bullet: Ritual and Moral Injury.” (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: “Rest, Bullet: Ritual and Moral Injury.”
Author: Kathryn McClymond
Abstract: This presentation considered how rituals allow those who have seen combat to cope with lasting traumas.
Date: 04/25/20
Conference Name: American Society for the Study of Religion, University of Chicago

“Rituals and Moral Injury: How Veterans Make Peace” (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: “Rituals and Moral Injury: How Veterans Make Peace”
Author: Kathryn McClymond
Abstract: In this presentation, the author explores the role of ritual in allowing veterans to overcome a specific form of trauma known as moral injury.
Date: 04/12/19
Conference Name: Humanistic Perspectives on Moral Injury, Georgia State University

“Moral Injury in Healthcare Settings” (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: “Moral Injury in Healthcare Settings”
Abstract: The authors consider how moral injury manifests itself among first responders in the health care field and discuss strategies for identifying and overcoming the setbacks it entails.
Author: Kathryn McClymond
Author: Alyssa Hueniger
Date: 05/08/18
Location: annual WellStar Health System’s Ethics Program, Atlanta, GA

“Rest, Bullet: Ritual Homecoming Practices among Combat Veterans” (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: “Rest, Bullet: Ritual Homecoming Practices among Combat Veterans”
Author: Kathryn McClymond
Abstract: Ritual has long been a way of overcoming the sullying effects of combat. This presentation how such practices can deflect the impact of moral injury.
Date: 03/22/2017
Conference Name: Harold and Doris Durfee Lecture, Department of Philosophy and Religion, American University, Washington D.C.

“Rituals of Healing: Veterans’ Homecoming Rituals and Practices" (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: “Rituals of Healing: Veterans’ Homecoming Rituals and Practices"
Author: Kathryn McClymond
Abstract: This paper begins to set out some preliminary findings about the role of ritual in understanding how veterans overcome the distinct trauma of moral injury.
Date: 11/20/16
Conference Name: American Academy of Religion, San Antonio, TX

“Moral Theorizing about Moral Injury” (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: “Moral Theorizing about Moral Injury”
Author: Andrew I. Cohen
Author: Jennifer A. Samp
Abstract: This paper considers what moral theory might contribute to an understanding of moral injury. Given that moral injuries often have debilitating consequences, it may seem that moral theorizing is beside the point. We argue, however, that moral theorizing is uniquely situated to establish the normative implications of instances of moral injury and the institutions in which they emerge.
Date: 02/22/17
Conference Name: Association of Practical and Professional Ethics, Dallas, TX

“Toward a theory of moral injury and relational framing among post-deployment soldiers in close relationships” (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: “Toward a theory of moral injury and relational framing among post-deployment soldiers in close relationships”
Author: Jennifer A. Samp
Author: Andrew I. Cohen
Abstract: This project explores how moral injury inflects the relationship structures among veterans of combat.
Date: 04/15/17
Conference Name: Southern States Communication Association, Greenville, SC.

“Managing military life post-deployment: Coping with moral injuries” (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: “Managing military life post-deployment: Coping with moral injuries”
Author: Jennifer A. Samp
Author: Andrew I. Cohen
Author: Richard Glickstein
Abstract: This poster presents some preliminary findings from our analysis of the data from our project, showing how moral injury impacts soldiers' behaviors and self-perceptions
Date: 09/10/17
Conference Name: 22nd International Summit of the Institute on Violence, Abuse and Trauma, La Jolla, CA

“The Ethics and Politics of Moral Injury” (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: “The Ethics and Politics of Moral Injury”
Author: Andrew I. Cohen
Abstract: The danger of moral injury does not fundamentally change the moral calculus regarding of war. Moral injury may, however, generate reparations claims and may impact feasibility judgments just wars. We argue that moral injury represents a moral cost that must be factored in to decisions to fight but must also play a role in preparing warriors. We also argue that a concern for individual rights, accountability, and transparency permit returning warriors familiar with moral injury to use their authoritative testimony to impact public debates about the merit of military engagements.
Date: 01/15/18
Conference Name: the International Society of Military Ethics, Cleveland, OH

“Refining the Concept of Moral Injury” (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: “Refining the Concept of Moral Injury”
Author: Andrew I. Cohen
Abstract: Recent discussions of moral injury show the power and promise of the concept for understanding of the normative significance of trauma. Our research supports how the idea of moral injury helps many with its symptoms to understand their experiences. As the concept gains traction, however, it threatens to become overly inclusive. In this presentation we clarify the boundaries of moral injury by arguing that morality, injury, and agency are each crucial for moral injury. Reports of moral injury can then be mistaken. We set out the normative contours of moral injury as part of a project of distinguishing the phenomenon from other sorts of trauma and unwelcome experiences.
Date: 03/15/18
Conference Name: Association of Practical and Professional Ethics 2018 conference, Chicago, IL

“Public Health and responses to Moral Injury” (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: “Public Health and responses to Moral Injury”
Abstract: This presentation to public health affiliates of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention introduced the concept of moral injury as a distinctive clinical category and surveyed some of our preliminary results for illustrating the significance of moral injury as an analytical framework.
Author: Andrew I. Cohen
Author: Jennifer A. Samp
Date: 03/20/18
Location: presentation to the Public Health Ethics Committee of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA

“Theorizing moral injury with reports of trauma and resilience” (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: “Theorizing moral injury with reports of trauma and resilience”
Author: Andrew I. Cohen
Author: Jennifer A. Samp
Abstract: We argue that certain moral emotions importantly figure in the idea of moral injury. However, we defend an account of warrant in cases of the guilt common to moral injury.
Date: 04/17/19
Conference Name: “Humanistic Dimensions of Moral Injury” conference at Georgia State University, April, 2019

Moral Injury and the Humanities: Interdisciplinary Perspectives (Book)
Title: Moral Injury and the Humanities: Interdisciplinary Perspectives
Editor: Andrew I. Cohen
Editor: Kathryn McClymond
Abstract: This book brings together leading interdisciplinary scholars to broaden and deepen the conversation about moral injury. In the original chapters, the contributors present new research to show how the humanities are crucial for understanding the expressions, meaning, and significance of moral injury. Moral injury is the disorientation we suffer when we are complicit in some moral transgression. Most existing works address moral injury from a clinical or neuroscientific perspective. The chapters in this volume show how the humanities are crucial for understanding the meaning and significance of moral injury as well as suggesting how to grapple with its lived challenges. The chapters address the conceptual, sociological, historical, and ritualistic dimensions of moral injury across three thematic sections. Section 1 explores how tools of the humanities provide new lenses for understanding conceptual and genealogical themes about moral injury. Section 2 highlights the experiences of moral injury in combat soldiers, law enforcement, and noncombatants such as photojournalists. These chapters examine the power and limits to theorizing moral phenomena by appeals to lived experience. Section 3 considers how humanistic inquiry illuminates important dimensions of the aftermath of moral injury beyond the scope of clinical research. These chapters consider how ritual, relationship repair, and atonement might shape the ways people navigate moral injury and consider how such responses shape our understanding of what we owe to one another. Moral Injury and the Humanities: Interdisciplinary Perspectives is an essential resource for researchers and advanced students in philosophy, religious studies, literature, journalism, and the arts who are interested in moral injury.
Year: 2024
Primary URL: https://www.routledge.com/Moral-Injury-and-the-Humanities-Interdisciplinary-Perspectives/Cohen-McClymond/p/book/9781032249964
Primary URL Description: link to publisher's website
Publisher: Routledge
Type: Edited Volume
ISBN: 9781032249964
Copy sent to NEH?: No