Social Work in War-Torn Contexts

Shulamit Ramon is professor of social inclusion and wellbeing at the University of Hertfordshire, UK since 2007. She is a registered social worker with Social Work England and a Chartered Clinical Psychologist of the British Psychological Society. Prof. Ramon has researched the issue of social work in war-torn contexts since 2003, publishing the first-ever book on this topic in 2008 (Social Work in the Context of Political Conflict), and 10 peer-reviewed articles on this issue. Her latest empirical research on this topic focused on working with asylum seekers during the COVID-19 pandemic in North Greece and South Italy (published in 2023) with local colleagues. She has received the Kathrine Kendall Award for her International contribution to social work. Prof. Ramon has been involved in setting up social work education in Armenia, Russia and Ukraine, funded by the EU and the Open Society.  Recently she has developed a teaching programme for UK social work students concerning the knowledge they need to have in order to work with war refugees, asylum seekers, and unaccompanied minors; the only such programme in the UK.  Prof. Ramon has participated in developing innovative mental health research in Austria, Israel, Italy, Portugal, Slovenia, and UK.  In particular, she has developed co-produced ways of working with people experiencing mental ill health and involving them in education, as well as in research. She has published 13 books, and more than 100 peer-reviewed articles. 

Darja Zaviršek is professor of social work at the University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Social Work, in Slovenia. She is the chair of the Department of Social Justice and Inclusion at the Faculty of Social Work and professor at the international MA studies ‘Social Work as a Human Rights Profession’ at the University of Applied Science Berlin. She serves as the president of the East European subregional Association of the Schools of Social Work, as part of the IASSW. Her research covers disability studies, theories of gendered violence, the history of social work education in East Europe, migration, and social work war studies. She was involved in setting up social work education in Ukraine, Kosovo, Georgia, and Republica Srbska (Bosnia and Herzegovina) and worked at the Central European University, Budapest at the department for Gender Studies (1997-2004). Prof. Zaviršek received several awards and fellowships, including: Berghof Foundation Grant (2001); Honorary Professorship at Alice Salomon Hochschule Berlin (2002); Soros Foundation, SEP, Central European University, Senior Fellowship Grant (2005); Hong Kong Polytechnic University Fellowship (2009); Japan Society for the promotion of Science- JPPS Fellowship (2009); Tunghai University Fellowship (2014); Hokenstad Lecture Award, CSWE  USA (2016), Excellency in Science Award, Slovenian Research Agency (2019), Eileen Younghusband Memorial Lecture, IASSW (2022). In 2023 she became an associate member of the Slovenian Academy of Science and Art. She was the author, editor and co-editor of 18 books and guest editor in several scientific social work journals.