Associate Scientific Director

Canadian Institute for Military and Veteran Health Research

Stéphanie Bélanger is a Full Professor and Chair of the Department of French Language, Literature and Culture at the Royal Military College of Canada (RMC). She is also a founding member and Associate Scientific Director of the Canadian Institute for Military and Veteran Health Research (CIMVHR). In addition, she serves as Editor-in-Chief of the peer-reviewed and indexed Journal of Military, Veteran and Family Health (University of Toronto Press) and is co-founder of two major scholarly book series dedicated to military studies, security, and war narratives, published respectively by McGill-Queen’s University Press and Les Presses de l’Université Laval.

Her research lies at the intersection of the humanities, military studies, and military and veteran health. She is particularly interested in military culture, representations of war, soldier identity, and the ethics of armed conflict. Her work also examines moral injury, mental health and well-being among military personnel and veterans, gendered experiences of military service, and war memories and narratives.

Recognized for her interdisciplinary approach, she draws on literature, war testimony, and the humanities to better understand the psychological, moral, and social consequences of armed conflict. Her research contributes to advancing knowledge on resilience, military leadership, just war theory, and the human impacts of contemporary military operations.

A member of the Royal Society of Canada’s College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists since 2016, she holds a PhD from the University of Toronto, a Master of Public Administration from the Royal Military College of Canada, and a Certificate in Addiction Studies from the Faculty of Medicine at Université Laval. She is currently pursuing a Graduate Diploma in Psychotherapy at Université Hearst. She also served as a reservist in the Canadian Armed Forces for twenty years, from 2004 to 2024.

Through her research, scholarly publishing, and knowledge mobilization activities, Stéphanie Bélanger contributes to a deeper understanding of the human, ethical, and cultural dimensions of war while supporting the education of future military leaders and advancing the health and well-being of military personnel, veterans, and their families.