War & Peace Series | March 2025

Special Focus on Women, Duty of Care, Trauma-Sensitivity, and Interview Training

Oxford Initiative for Global Ethics

War & Peace Series— Duty of Care, Trauma-Sensitivity & Interview Training

24 - 29 March Workshop Symposium

Merton College, University of Oxford

Our global landscape is dominated by wars and conflict, brutally revealing human tragedy, devastation, and desperation. How do we find hope in successful peacebuilding endeavors, strategic moral diplomacy, and the resilience of the human spirit? The study of war and peace at the University of Oxford dates back to the 1500s, with notable contributions to just war thinking and the ethics of war. This workshop symposium will address new challenges linked to global health, women in war, developments in peace technology, the environment, forced migration, violent non-state groups, and the role of economic justice. Join us for an intensive week in Oxford with our faculty, project partners, and experienced practitioners as we explore the roles and agency of women in war and peace—how they participate in their conflicts and tell their stories

All workshops incorporate our global women's narratives project with themes of religion, war and peace, health, identity, gendered violence, and life's work. We will explore the agency of women—how they participate in their conflicts—and the role of inter-generational trauma in intractable conflicts across time. Two sessions will focus specifically on Ghana and Israel as preparation for GWNP project interview teams later in 2025.

This workshop particularly benefits trauma-informed fieldwork and working with vulnerable populations in conflict-prone areas. Workshop participants receive our GWNP Duty of Care training certificate in trauma-sensitive narrative and interviewing techniques in partnership with Resonate Joy trauma specialists. Our Duty of Care Training is required before interviewing women for the Global Women’s Narratives Project.

The daily schedule in Oxford is generally 9:00 am to 3:45 pm, with one evening session and one afternoon free to tour Oxford. Previous schedules are available on the 2022, 2023, and 2024 workshop pages.

Left Image is a panel Zoom-in from Israel with Parent Circle Families leaders Robi Damelin and Laila Alshek moderated by Anne Carr from Northern Ireland. September 2025 workshop symposium,

Resonate Joy Nonprofit, an arm of the Optimum Joy private practice in Chicago, IL, USA, partners with the Global Women’s Narratives Project to provide trauma-informed training and therapeutic support. Trauma specialists lead several sessions in our Oxford training and will be joining the work in Northern Ireland and Cairo, Egypt, in September.