Peace building and social work: Empowering marginalized communities to lead change, with Dr. Amal Elsana Alh’jooj

Join the Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work for a talk by Dr. Amal Elsana Alh’jooj, Founder and Executive Director of the nonprofit organization PLEDJ (Promoting Leadership for Empowerment, Development and Justice) and author of Hope is a Woman’s Name, a personal memoir that recounts her experiences growing up as an Indigenous Bedouin Palestinian woman in Israel. Dr. Alh’jooj will share insight from her work at the intersection of community organizing and peacebuilding in the Middle East and Canada, the importance of strengthening links between academia and local communities, and the role that social work can play in empowering the most marginalized among us to lead social change, at local and global levels. 

This is a hybrid event.

> Register to attend in person

Location: 78 Queen’s Park (Faculty of Law, University of Toronto), Room J140
Click here for more information on traveling to the Faculty of Law

Copies of Dr. Alh’jooj’s book Hope is a Woman’s name will be available to purchase for $35 at the event via cash or e-transfer.

> Register to attend online

Location: Zoom webinar

Peace building and social work: Empowering marginalized communities to lead change, with Dr. Amal Elsana Alh’jooj is the inaugural talk in the Social Work in Global Context Lecture Series.  

ABOUT THE SOCIAL WORK IN GLOBAL CONTEXT LECTURE SERIES 

Many factors affecting the individuals, families and communities that social workers serve extend beyond borders, with solutions that require a global understanding and approach. Globalization, migration, displacement, economic inequality, war and violence, cultural diversity, human rights, de-colonization, neo-colonization and environmental sustainability affect us all and foreground our connections. The Social Work in Global Context Lecture series convenes multidisciplinary discussions on the complex issues that arise in our globalized world — and the opportunities available for social work to promote social justice, at both local and international levels. 

ABOUT DR. AMAL ELSANA ALH’JOOJ 

Dr. Amal Elsana Alh’jooj is the Founder and Executive Director of PLEDJ (Promoting Leadership for Empowerment, Development and Justice), which brings her vision of empowering the most marginalized communities to address intractable social problems to the local, national, and international levels.  

Amal has over thirty years of experience working at the intersection of community organizing and peacebuilding in the Middle East and Canada focusing on marginalized minorities. Her approach to grassroots work focuses on strengthening the organic linkage between academia and communities.  

Amal earned her BA in social work at Ben-Gurion University in Israel and received her MA in community organizing and PhD in Social Work at McGill University. Her doctoral work explored the inherent tensions arising from combining service provision and advocacy in social service organizations within a context of indigenous minorities. In 2019-2020, Amal conducted postdoctoral research within the Women and Public Policy Program at Harvard Kennedy School focusing on the barriers faced and the strategies employed by women’s organizations. In 2020-2021, she was a postdoctoral fellow at McGill University focusing on the role and challenges of civil society organizations in conflict zones.  

Between 2016 and 2020 Amal was the Executive Director of ICAN-McGill – the International Community Action Network at McGill University. She is the co-founder of AJEEC – Arab Jewish Center for Equality, Empowerment and Cooperation and a past co-executive director of AJEEC-NISPED.  

Amal is the recipient of numerous prizes, awards, and distinctions. To name a few, she was chosen as one of the Genius: 100 Visionaries of the Future by the Einstein Legacy Project in 2017. In 2013, she was the recipient of the Human Rights Award by the New Israel Fund. Amal was awarded the Victor J. Goldberg Prize for Peace in the Middle East in 2011. In 2010, she was chosen by The Marker (Israeli business publication) as 1 of the 101 most influential people in Israel. Amal was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize within the framework of 1000 women in 2005. In the same year, Amal was one of the women leaders recognized by the World Association for Small and Medium Enterprises for her contributions to economic empowerment programs for Bedouin Arab women.  

Amal is the author of Hope is a Woman’s Name, a personal memoir that recounts her experiences growing up as an Indigenous Bedouin Palestinian woman in Israel. While addressing the challenges of patriarchal tribal traditions and the prejudices of the Israeli state, the book explores how Amal has woven together every aspect of her intersectional identity – Bedouin, Arab, woman, Palestinian and Israeli citizen – to navigate between individual, social and political identities, and the systems of power within which they exist.  

Amal lives in Montreal with her husband, Anwar, and twin kids, Adan and Moad. 

> Click here for more information on Dr. Alh’jooj’s book

Copies of Dr. Alh’jooj’s book Hope is a Woman’s name will be available to purchase for $35 at the event via cash or e-transfer.