Community Invited to Webinar Series Exploring Veteran Transition and Moral Injury

Zachary Moon, Lindsay Clark, Christian Enemark

A spring 2021 webinar series sponsored by the Moral Injury Project of Hendricks Chapel, in affiliation with Le Moyne College, will focus on veterans, student veterans and military personnel “finding true north” in the midst of transitional times.

The first program in the series, “Diagnosing Moral Injury: Definitions, Deficits and Development of Understanding,” will be held Friday, April 16, from noon to 1:15 p.m. on Zoom. Registration is open now.

“The first two webinars will build a vocabulary and responsive practice for addressing moral injury. The third session will address that understanding of moral injury in the context of drone warfare,” says Eileen Schell, coordinator of the Moral Injury Project and professor of writing and rhetoric in the College of Arts and Sciences.

The April 16 program will feature Zachary Moon, assistant professor of theology and psychology at the Chicago Theology Seminary. He has studied moral injury and moral distress, with three published books on the topic, including “Coming Home: Ministry That Matters with Veterans and Military Families” (Chalice Press, 2015) and “Warriors between Worlds: Moral Injury and Identities in Crisis” (Lexington Books, 2019). He works with military veterans and their families in helping to reintegrate communities and discover a sense of belonging post-deployment. Moon is also ordained in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), leading a life dedicated to establishing faith communities for veterans.

In this program, Moon will present the basic foundations of trauma and moral injury studies, revisit operative definitions and consider implicit conceptualizations of human suffering and healing. The presentation will move from foundations to the growing edges of scholarship and practice in addressing moral injury.

The second program, “Rebuilding the House: Reparative Practices and Community-based Efforts Addressing Moral Injury,” will take place Friday, April 23 from noon to 1:15 p.m. on Zoom and will again be moderated by Moon. It will address the pro-social function of moral distress by considering the role of moral emotions, moral agency and the sense of responsibility.

The third program, “Wielding Drone Violence and Risking Moral Injury,” will be offered Friday, April 30 from 11 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. on Zoom. The program will feature Christian Enemark, professor of international relations in the School of Economic, Social and Political Sciences, and European Research Council (ERC) principal investigator for the DRONETHICS project, both at the University of Southampton, U.K. He will be joined by his colleague, Lindsay Clark, an ERC research fellow for the DRONETHICS project, to discuss ethical thinking about drone violence and the carried risks of moral injury.

Registration for all programs is free and required. Attendees will be invited to participate in a question and answer session during each program. Please register through Zoom here: April 16, April 23 and April 30.

Communication Access Realtime Transcription (CART) services will provide captioning for each program and American Sign Language (ASL) interpretation will be provided.  For questions or to request additional accommodations, contact Hendricks Chapel at chapel@syr.edu or 315.443.2901. For more information, please visit moralinjuryproject.syr.edu.

This story was written by Christina Kohl ’21.