Ethics Center Conference Explores Trauma Of Moral Injury

ATLANTA–The College of Arts & Sciences Jean Beer Blumenfeld Center for Ethics will sponsor a conference exploring moral injury on April 11 and 12 in Georgia State’s Rialto Center for the Arts. The event will feature original research by leading experts and scholars who will draw on the tools of the humanities to theorize moral injury.

“Moral injury is a trauma one may have from participating in or witnessing an act that challenges deeply held values,” said Center for Ethics Director Andrew I. Cohen. “It overlaps with but is different from post-traumatic stress disorder.

“There are reports of moral injury among members of the armed forces, medical practitioners, journalists, first responders, and others,” he said. “Moral injury matters not just for those who experience it, but for our understandings of political authority, civic duty, military ethics, what we owe each other, and recovery from historic injustice.”

The conference will feature a free public symposium on Thursday, April 11 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. as well as two full days of scholarly presentations.

Speakers will explore the dimensions and implications of trauma for understandings of political authority, interpersonal accountability, civic duty, collective agency/responsibility, recovery from historic injustice, and related themes.

The featured presenters at the public symposium include:

• Joshua Mantz (author and US Army Major, Retired)
• Rita Nakashima Brock (Volunteers of America)
• Nancy Sherman (Department of Philosophy, Georgetown University)

Additional panelists will include noted local experts who help those with combat experiences.

This project is supported by Georgia Humanities, in partnership with the Georgia Department of Economic Development, through funding from the Georgia General Assembly.

All events are free and open to the public. For more information or to register, go to: https://ethics.gsu.edu/conference-on-moral-injury/