Keynote Speakers

Dr Jim Campbell is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Sociology, Social Policy and Social Work, Queens University Belfast. Before then he had practiced as a mental health social worker in Belfast. He has published widely in the areas of mental health social work and the impact of political violence on social work practice in Northern Ireland. Jim is currently involved in a project which involves victims and survivors of the conflict in the teaching of social work students. His most recent publication is Campbell, J and Duffy, J (2008) ‘Social work, political violence and citizenship in Northern Ireland’, in Shulamit Ramon (ed) Social Work in Political Conflict, Birmingham: Venture/BASW.

Dr. Michael Duffy commenced his social work career in 1982 as a SWA in North and West Belfast and post qualifying worked as a mental health social worker obtaining his ASW award in 1991. He trained in Analytically informed Psychotherapy and practised in psychoanalytic psychotherapy supervised by Dr Raman Kapur between 1991-1994. In 1996, he moved to Sperrin Lakeland Health Trust (SLT) and was subsequently invited to lead the Health & Social Services Trauma and Recovery Team in response to the Omagh bombing. In 1998 he trained and has since practised as a cognitive therapist, specialising in PTSD, panic disorder and social phobia. In 2002, he was appointed Team Leader and Principal Cognitive Therapist at the regionally funded, Omagh based N. I. Centre for Trauma and Transformation (NICTT) where he is currently an Honorary Specialist Cognitive Therapist. In 2004, Dr Duffy was appointed as lecturer in Social Work at Magee College, University of Ulster where he held the position of Academic Director of the Post Graduate Cognitive Therapy programme. Dr Duffy accepted his new position at Queen’s in March 2009 as Senior Lecturer in the Cognitive Behavioural Therapy programme (CBT).

Dr Duffy has been part of a multi-disciplinary team that has undertaken community studies and clinical research into the phenomenology and the treatment of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and other trauma related disorders. He has clinical and research links with NICTT and the clinical research team of Prof. Ehlers and Prof. Clark at KCL & Institute of Psychiatry, London. He is currently involved locally with the Spirit of Enniskillen Group in designing a school project to pilot a cognitive model for challenging rigid attitudes and beliefs that form stereotypes and maintain community divisions. Recent publications include ‘Post-traumatic Stress Disorder in the Context of Terrorism and other Civil Conflict in Northern Ireland: Randomized Controlled trial’. British Medical Journal, 334, 147-50.2007

Dr Rea Maglajlic Holicek is a Senior Lecturer/Programme Director for the BSc Social Work, Centre for Social Work and Social Care Research, School of Human Sciences, Swansea University, Wales, UK. From 1999 to 2007, Rea lived in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH). She first worked as a Project Manager for a TEMPUS funded project that initiated Community Mental Health MA programmes at the Universities in Sarajevo and Banja Luka (BiH). In parallel, she supported the development of the mental health system survivor movement in BiH and took part in some of the first studies on the reform of community mental health services in this country. From 2003, Rea worked as a freelance consultant, mainly conducting child and adult protection reform research for a variety of international organisations across South-Eastern Europe, including UNICEF, Save the Children UK, European Commission, USAID and DFID. She has published in the area of child and youth issues in human rights context in Bosnia and Herzegovina and social work in the context of political violence.

Lagerkvist, B., Maglajlic, R.A., Puratic, V., Susic, A. Jacobsson, L. (2003) Assessment of Community Mental Health Centres in Bosnia and Herzegovina as part of the ongoing mental health reform. Med Arh 57(1): 31-8

Merav Moshe Grodofsky is a senior lecturer both in the Department of Social Work and the Department of Public Policy and Administration at the Sapir Academic College. She currently serves as the Interim Chair of the Department of Social Work.

She is a graduate of McGill University in Montreal Canada where she completed an interdisciplinary doctorate in social work and law. Merav's teaching, practice and research focus on human rights advocacy, community organizing and the combination of the two as a method to promote people-to-people relationships and peace building among disadvantaged, multicultural groups within societies and between societies in conflict.

Merav applies theory to practice in her role as the regional coordinator for the McGill Middle East Program in Civil Society and Peace Building. The program implements rights-based practice and community organizing through storefront centers that have been established in poor and multicultural neighborhoods in Israel, Jordan and Palestine. Together the centers form an active peace building network in the region. Recently Merav was approached to feature in a film that will focus on the lives of three members of the network.

Her work in this unique field has brought her to South Africa and Italy as well where there is growing interest in developing models for peace building and inter-communal relationships. Her most recent publication on her work entitled, "The contribution of law and social work to interdisciplinary community development and peacebuilding in the Middle East" was published in the Journal of Community Practice. An earlier publication relevant to the topic of peacebuilding entitled "Peacebuilding: A conceptual framework" was published in the International Journal of Social Welfare.