Contact
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU)
Oettingenstr. 67
80538 Munich
Email:
aimeeghanem@gmail.com
Work group
Research Project: The history of the Social Work Profession in Lebanon concluded through the lived-experiences of the Pioneer Social Workers”. Period between 1948 the beginning of the Social Work Profession in Lebanon until the start of the Lebanese Civil War 1975.
Funding: Partially through the project “International Social Work Acting in Crises- Attitude matters (AttiMa)”, funded by DAAD which is a collaboration of the University of Applied Sciences Würzburg-Schweinfurt (FHWS) in Germany, the German Jordanian University (GJU) in Jordan, the Modern University for Business and Science (MUBS) in Lebanon, https://ifas.fhws.de/en/international-social-work-attitude-matters/the-project/
Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Magnus Treiber
Research Interest
This Ph.D. thesis aims to document the history and development of the Social Work profession in Lebanon the period between the start of the profession in Lebanon up until the start of the Lebanese Civil War (1948-1975). An Ethnographic research methodology will be undertaken through narrative interviews with the pioneer in Social Work in Lebanon, focus group discussions and documentations review of their daily work. This PhD thesis will be complementary research and also one of the recommendations that resulted from a previous collaboration with the University of Applied Sciences Würzburg-Schweinfurt on a study that aimed to document the Social Work experiences in Lebanon, in response to crises and disasters, the period between 1975 (the start of Lebanese Civil war) until the last crises which is the Beirut Port explosion (August, 4th, 2020). The study interviewed around 69 pioneer Social Workers in Lebanon chosen by several criteria among which social workers working on the field since 1949, graduating from the 4 main institutes in Lebanon, that are graduating Social Workers, and are acknowledge by the Social Work Syndicate in Lebanon.
Short Bio
My name is Aimee Ghanem, I am coming from Lebanon, I have a Social Work background with a master degree in Qualitative Research, St Joseph University (USJ) – School of Social Welfare, Beirut. Currently enrolled as a Doctorate student in Ethnology/ Social and Cultural Anthropology at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. I have around 15 years of experience in Social Work. As an independent consultant in Lebanon and the Middle East, I was involved in research at national (Lebanon) and regional level with local NGOs, International NGOs and UN agencies pertaining to development and humanitarian program. In addition, to monitoring and evaluation of EU/ US funded program aiming to support, institutional reform in Government and Civil Society organizations.
Publications:
Rachel Hagues, David Cecil, Aimee Ghanem, Rania Mansour & David Robbins (2021) Refugee social work in Lebanon: does the faith of the social worker provide support? Journal of Religion & Spirituality in Social Work: Social Thought, https://doi.org/10.1080/15426432.2021.1886621