Guest Lecture „Resilience and Loss in Social Work“ by Claudia Psaila of the University of Malta
In a captivating talk on July 13th, Claudia Psaila gave insights into questions of loss and resilience in professional social work contexts. Dr. Claudia Psaila is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Malta and counts with several years of practical experience as psychotherapist and a counsellor in the Hospice providing supervision to individuals and groups. Claudia Psaila research and teaching interests relate to topics such as spirituality and psychotherapy in social work, reflexive practice, resilience, and trauma-sensitive care. Almost thirty students followed the interactive talk and exchanged on positions and resources regarding loss in social work.
Guest lecture by Angela Preisser from the University of Würzburg
On July 4th of 2023, the lecture "Psychosocial Counselling with Interpreters - How Can It Work?" (online) took place. Angela Preisser is a psychologist with several years of experience in the field of psychosocial counselling in multi-professional and international contexts. She currently works at the university outpatient department for psychotherapy at the Julius-Maximilians-University of Würzburg. Previously, she worked at the Protestant Centre for Counselling and Therapy “Evangelischen Zentrum für Beratung und Therapie am Weißen Stein” in counselling people with traumatic experiences and was internationally active in Iraq and Mexico, among other places. In the exciting lecture, Angela Preißer provided insights into how language barriers can impact psychosocial counselling with people of different origins and how third persons can become involved, showing possible ways of implementing counselling with the help of interpreters.
Erasmus+ Staff Exchange of Gulbiye Yasar from the University of Ankara
As part of an Erasmus+ teaching exchange, the Faculty of Applied Social Sciences welcomed Dr. Gulbiye Yasar from the Faculty of Health Management at Ankara University between May 8th to 11th 2023. As part of the Master's programme in Social Work in Wiesbaden, Gulbiye Yasar offered insights into the health and social system in Turkey. The impulse lectures complemented the internationally oriented offer of the Master's programme in the context of the Summer School "Ethics and Management in Social Work", in which some of the course participants took part on site at the partner university in Malta and some virtually together from Wiesbaden.
Guest lecture by Jason Schaub from University of Birmingham
Dr Jason Schaub is lecturer in Social Work at the University of Birmingham. He is a qualified social worker, before entering academia he was a social worker and social work manager in the USA, Ireland and the UK in mental health and children’s services for over ten years.
In his guest lecture on November 23rd of 2022, he shared insights from his research in gender & sexuality, improving the well-being of LGBTQ+ youth, professional engagement for LGBTQ+ individuals, and leadership in social work and child protection practice.
Guest lectures by María del Carmen Panizzo Godoy from GIZ in Peru
New perspectives bring new insights!
Two events with the lawyer and political scientist María del Carmen Panizzo from Peru took place at Rhine-Main University of Applied Sciences on 15th and 16th of November 2022. The first event, "Science makes policies - Strategies against gender-specific violence in South America", showed innovative paths in the design, development and use of scientific studies in relation to violence against women. María del Carmen Panizzo made an impressive presentation on how access to research and the resulting research results have enabled the private economic sector to become a new actor in the prevention of violence against women in different countries in South America.
How differently history can be written was the topic of the second event on 16th of November 2022 with the theme: "Violence against women: the invisible pandemic - What can Germany and Latin America learn from each other?" I am a woman, I am Peruvian with African roots and I am a feminist. With these words, María del Carmen Panizzo took us on a journey through time. She highlighted the most important stages between 1960 and today, which made up the struggle of women for a life free of gender-specific violence, on an international and South American level. She impressively showed how far legislation in South America has progressed in this area in contrast to Germany. She ended the lecture with the words: "I think we have done some things quite well, but I think there is still a long way to go."
Erasmus+ Staff Mobility with Pirjo Turunen and Tuija Pakarinen from Savonia University of Applied Sciences in Kuopio
How similar and yet how different social work can look like in different countries was a takeaway from the visit of Pirjo Turunen and Tuija Pakarinen from the Savonia University of Applied Sciences in Finland between November 7th and 11th of 2022. In addition to exciting insights into their research project "Hyvää jälkeä (Good Traces) - Transitions from care into adulthood as experiences and practices in the changing landscape of social care services" and joint visits to social work organizations in the city, the foundation for a new partnership was laid during the four days together and initial planning for joint projects was undertaken for the coming winter.
Three scholars from Ukrainian universities start six months fellowship at the Faculty of Applied Social Sciences
A warm welcome! At the beginning of July 2022, three researchers began their six-month guest stay at the Faculty of Applied Social Sciences. As part of the fellowship programme for scholars at risk from Ukraine, Dr. Larysa Platash, Dr. Olha Lazarenko and Dr. Olena Oleksenko will continue their previous research work at the Department of Social Work. The researchers are working on issues of inclusion and educational participation, malpractice in psychotherapy with a view to trauma, as well as interculturality and the experiences of international students. The social worker, psychologist and economist can now continue their research activities at the department, which had become uncertain due to the events of the war following the Russian attack on Ukraine. Dr. Yaroslav Slutsky will soon complete the group of visiting scholars and will begin his stay at the faculty in autumn.
Guest lecture with Prof. Dr. Einat Peled from Tel Aviv University
Dr Einat Peled from Tel Aviv University enriched the faculty on June 22nd 2022 during the summer semester with an exciting presentation on "Enhancing and sustaining services for people in the sex trade (IST) during COVID-19: Lessons learned from a longitudinal Israeli study on the impact of the pandemic on IST help services." Dr Peled is a professor at the Bob Shapell School of Social Work. There she conducts research on gender-related topics as a concern of social work. In particular, her attention is focused on research in the area of violence against women, prostitution, and human trafficking, and professional social work responses to these challenges. In addition to numerous publications, Einat Peled has been active as chair in the non-governmental organization Ruach Nashit, which advocates for individuals affected by gender violence and promotes their economic independence.
Erasmus+ Staff Exchange with Dr. Melahat Demirbilek
Dr. Melahat Demirbilek from Ankara University stayed at the Faculty of Applied Social Sciences. During her visit, she held a guest lecture on “The situation of refugees in Turkey – multiple dimensions” and taught classes in the M.A. Social Work. Learn more about her experiences at the Faculty of Applied Social Sciences in her story (PDF file).
International lecture series on "Cricital views on aultcentrism and childhood"
Between October 2021 and June 2022, various national and international scholars discuss their work with B.A. Social Work students in the student-research project “critical stances towards adultcentrism in social work”. Among the speakers were: Prof. Dr. Asgeir Falch Eriksen from Oslomed, Natalia Fernandes from Universidade do Minho, Spyros Spyrou from Cyprus University, and Laura Lundy from Queens University of Belfast. The lecture series was a cooperation with the theory-practice project "critical views on adultcentrim in Social Work" by Prof. Dr. Heidrun Schulze, Nadine Fiebig, Rita Nunes, and Sandra Holtgreve.
In this section you will soon find a list of earlier guests of the Faculty of Applied Social Sciences.
- 24-27.01.2018: Workshop with Ken Potter on “Narrative Practice and Community Work.“ Ken Potter is a licensed Clinical Social Worker, Co-director of Warren St. Family Counseling Center in Concord, New Hampshire/USA, He is known for his innovative approaches in the Narrative Therapy Movement and a Child, as well as his work as adolescent and famlily therapist.
- International Symposium with The Bob Shapell School of Social Work Tel Aviv University: Together with the RheinMain University of Applied Sciences, the two institutions organized the symposium on “Professionality and Profession of Social Work - Growing up in public Responsibility in Israel and Germany"Among the speakers were (from left to right): Eugene Tartakovsky, Ph.D. from Tel Aviv University, Guy Shilo, M.S.W., Ph.D from Tel Aviv University, Rita Nunes from Free University Berlin, and Hisham Abu-Raiya, Ph.D. from Tel Aviv University (no photo). Here you can find the program (PDF 135 KB) of the International Symposium.
- Dec. 2017 International Symposium with Dr. Christine Brendel and Timm Kroeger: The symposium kickstarted the project “MamMut”. Dr. Christine Brendel developed the regional program "ComVoMujer", combating violence against women in Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador and Paraguay. This program aims to bring the actors (men, women, the state and different companies) who fight against violence against women together and to develop various steps against violence to women. During the symposium, Christine Brendel presented good practice examples for the prevention of violence against women from South America, which could easily be implemented in the context of Germany.
- 27.11.-01-12.2017: Staff Week at the Hochschule RheinMain: As part of the ERASMUS+ Staff Week from the 27th of November 2017 to the 1st of December 2017, representatives from four partner universities (Namibia University of Science And Technology in Windhoek/Namibia, Wisconsin-River Falls in River Falls/USA, Fuzhou University, China, German Jordanian University in Amman/Jordan) visited the Hochschule RheinMain. At the beginning of Staff Week, the Vice President, Prof. Dr. Christiane Jost, gave a warm welcome speech (PDF 190 KB).
- 23.-25.11.2017: Guest teaching of Prof. Dr. Tesfaye Semela: Prof. Dr. Tesfaye Semela from Hawassa University speaks on „African Education History & Philosophy with more closer focus on Ethiopia“ in the context of the seminar „Transnationale und Transkulturelle Soziale Arbeit am Beispiel Äthiopien", organised by Prof. Dr. Heidrun Schulze and Dorothee Schäfer. Here you can get an impression of the workshops (PDF 1.7 MB).
- 03.07.2017: Guest lecture of Gabriela Renteria Hernandez on "New perspectives for children in poor and vulnerable conditions." Gabriela Renteria Hernandez is head of the "Centro de Apoyo a Niños y Adolescentes Trabajadores (CANAT). CANAT is a center founded in 2010 located in the city of Piura (Peru), that pursues the mission caring for children from the age of three who find themselves under conditions of poverty and exploitation. In her lecture, she gave interesting insights into the work with children in vulnerable situations in Peru.
- 24.05.2017: Guest lecture of Timm Kroeger on "Working with men on the issue of violence against women." Timm Kroeger is a former member of the GIZ Ecuador/Peru, In his lecture, he reported about projects about violence against women in South America.
- 18.01.2017: Guest lecture by Rachel Rosen on "Uneasy bedfellows? Women's rights, children's rights, and domestic violence. The challenge of complexity in domestic violence." Rachel Rosen is associate professor in sociology of childhood in the Social Research Institute, UCL Institute of Education. It was her second visit at the Faculty of Applied Social Sciences and she gave an inspiring talk on the challenge of complexity in domestic violence.