Presenter: Shaz Ansari

Professor of Strategy and Innovation

Judge Business School, University of Cambridge

Presentation

Living with Ongoing Trauma: How Professionals Rework Time to Sustain Agency

Abstract

Professionals working in extreme settings such as war, famine, or epidemic disease often face trauma that is prolonged rather than episodic. Such conditions can undermine their sense of agency and complicate efforts to cope and remain engaged. Prior research has emphasized responses such as emotional distancing or withdrawal, but offers less insight into how professionals manage situations where trauma persists, disengagement is difficult, and expectations of impact diminish. Drawing on 73 diaries, interviews, field observations, and archival materials from Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières, this study examines how professionals draw on past experiences and future orientations to make sense of their work and sustain engagement in the present. We identify three pathways through which these temporal orientations shape coping over time. These pathways influence whether individuals return to fieldwork or redirect their efforts toward policy-oriented work. The study contributes to research on trauma and coping by showing how shifts in temporal orientation help reconfigure agency and account for different patterns of continued engagement or redirection.