I am an interdisciplinary researcher and literary writer whose work examines how trauma shapes human lives, communities, and systems. My scholarship is driven by a central question: how do violence, injustice, and crisis break people open, and what does it take to rebuild?
My early research focused on political and religious conflict, exploring how communities navigate rupture and repair in the aftermath of collective violence. Over the past decade, my work has shifted toward a deeper inquiry into trauma itself. I examine how trauma registers in the body, fractures relationships and institutions, and persists across social and health systems.
This trajectory has led me into the health humanities, resuscitation science, and community‑based health research, where I study the lived experience of crisis and the conditions that support recovery.
I am currently working on two major projects:
- The CIHR‑funded CADRE initiative, which is building a national ecosystem for resuscitation and community‑response data and support app.
- When the Heart Stops, a novel that explores how sudden medical crises, such as cardiac arrest, transform individuals and the communities that mobilize around them.
Across my academic and creative work, I am committed to understanding trauma not only as an individual experience but as a systemic phenomenon, and to identifying the pathways through which people and communities move toward repair.
Education
- BA, University of Waterloo
- MA, Dalhousie University
- PhD, University of Leeds, UK
Teaching
- theories of justice and peace
- ethics of war and peace
- religion and conflict resolution
- global and local issues of justice and peace
Selected Publications
Books
Shore, M. (in progress). When the Heart Stops. Literary fiction grounded in trauma from a cardiac arrest and how a community rebuilds after the trauma.
Shore, M. (2009) Religion and conflict resolution: Christianity and the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
This book examines the ambiguous role that Christianity played in South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). It has two objectives: to analyse the role Christianity played in the TRC and to highlight certain consequences that may be instructive to future international conflict resolution processes. Religion and conflict resolution is an area of significant importance. Ongoing conflicts...
Book Chapters
Shore, M. (2022). Histories: Religious peace movements in the 19th and 20th century. In J. Mitchell & L. Orr (Eds.), Wiley Blackwell companion to religion and peace. (pp. 485–496). Wiley Blackwell.
Kline, S., & Shore, M. (2019). Religion and conflict resolution in the European Union. In E. K. Wilson & B. Schewel (Eds.), Religion and European society (pp. 145–156). Wiley-Blackwell.
Shore, M. (2018). Religious leadership in South Africa’s transition. In J. Walter (Ed.), Religious imaginations and global transitions (pp. 247–259). Gingko Publishing.
Shore, M., & Kline, S. (2016). A response to homelessness in Pinellas County, Florida. In N. Nichols & C. Doberstein (Eds.), Systems level approaches to homelessness (pp. 74–88). Canadian Homelessness Research Network.
Kline, S., & Shore, M. (2012). Catholic peacemaking and Pax Christi. In L. Marsden (Ed.), Research companion on religion and conflict resolution (pp. 353–368). Ashgate Press.
Shore, M. (2012). Conflict/conflict resolution. In M. Juergensmeyer & H. K. Anheier (Eds.), Encyclopedia of global studies (pp. 262–267). Sage Publications.
Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles
Dainty, K., Brooks, S., Grunau, B., Kline, S., & Shore, M. (2023). Impact of COVID-19 on bystanderism: Does a Pandemic Change the Canadian Willingness to Help during a Cardiac Arrest Emergency, Preprints.
Shore, M., & Kline, S. (2016). The gospel imperative to house the homeless and the challenges of faith‑based organizations (FBOs) in systems approaches. The Ecumenist: A Journal of Theology, Culture, and Society, 53(4), 15–19.
Shore, M. (2013). Disruptive theology and homelessness.” The Ecumenist: A Journal of Theology, Culture, and Society, 50 (1), 20-21.
Shore, M. (2008). Christianity and justice in the South African TRC. Political Theology, 9(2), 161–178.
Kline, S., & Shore, M. (2006). The ambiguous role of religion in the South African TRC. Peace and Change, 31, 309–332.