SGP Grantees (2021)

Introduction

The IED is part of the ACSS initiative on “Research Ethics for the Social Sciences,” within which the ACSS will also launch “The Arab Platform for Ethical Research in the Social Sciences.” The aim of the platform is to raise awareness on the importance of ethical conduct of research. It will include an online and interactive training program that targets junior researchers and students at the Masters and PhD level. The platform also aims to foster discussion about principles of research ethics in social sciences and their adaptability to field research requirements and developments in the social sciences and humanities, particularly in conflict and insecure settings. An amount of USD 4,000 on average will be available to researchers from the Arab region who have already participated in ACSS programs.

IED is funded by a grant provided to the ACSS by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) of Canada.

Cycle 4 Initiatives on Ethical Dilemmas (2021)

Selection Committee

Jamil Mouawad is a Senior Fellow at the Arab Reform Initiative in charge of the independent professional associations project in the Arab world. He is also a lecturer in politics at the American University of Beirut, where he teaches courses in Public Policy, Political Science and Lebanese politics. He holds a PhD in politics from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London. He is a former Max Weber Fellow at the European University Institute, Florence. Jamil is a founding member of the Beirut School for Critical Security Studies, and the coordinator of the Ethics in Social sciences project initiated by the Arab Council for Social Sciences (ACSS). His research interests in state-society relations span the subfields of comparative politics and political economy. He has several scientific publications and is a regular commentator on Lebanese politics.

Jihad Makhoul is a professor at the Department of Health Promotion and Community Health. HEr professional life has evolved from much reflection on her years of experience in non-governmental agency work in community health and development in Lebanon during the wartime and in some parts of the Arab region, as well as from graduate level teaching. This has led her to develop an interest and work closely on social and structural determinants of health, social exclusion, research ethics, public health ethics and community engaging research. She has adopted and adapted multi-method research approaches and built cross-disciplinary and cross-country collaborations through membership in international professional networks. She has recently become interested in the commercial determinants of health and the influence of corporate funding on humanitarian assistance. Her publications are in these areas and include peer review articles as well as book chapters.

Rima Nakkash is a Professor in the Global and Community Health Department. Nakkash is a leading international scholar in tobacco control research in prevention and policy evaluation. She has published on community based participatory research initiatives as well as process, and implementation research particularly with youth and disadvantaged populations with a focus on mental health promotion. She is interested in civic and citizen engagement in health policy making, translation of evidence-based public health to inform interventions and policy, and advocacy for health. Her most recent research interests include research on research ethics and exploring interactions and conflict of interest between corporations and public health. She co-coordinates a global network on Governance on Ethics and Conflict and interest in Public Health (GECI-PH). She is a strong tobacco control advocate at national, regional, and international levels and believes in the power of partnerships and coalitions. In partnership with civil society and media, she had a major role in the passage of the most comprehensive tobacco control law while in Lebanon in 2011. In 2013, she was granted the international WHO World No Tobacco Day Award by Dr. Margaret Chan, the WHO Director at that time.

Before coming to Mason, Nakkash was a tenured Associate Professor at the Health Promotion and Community Health Department, Faculty of Health Sciences, at the American University of Beirut. She was the coordinator of the AUB Tobacco Control research group, co-director the WHO FCTC waterpipe tobacco smoking knowledge hub, Associate Director of the Knowledge to Policy Center, and Director of the Public Health Education Office.

Samer Ghamroun earned his PhD in legal sociology from the École Normale Supérieure of Cachan, Paris, on the subject of judicial competition between juvenile and Sharia judges in Lebanon, around the protection of children’s and women’s rights. He is currently an assistant professor at the Faculty of Law and Political Science in Saint Joseph University of Beirut, where he teaches legal sociology, legal history, and constitutional law, among other courses. He is also a senior researcher and a scientific editor with the Legal Agenda team in Beirut.

Small Grants Program Grantees 2021:

Type of Grant: Fieldwork

Faten Mbarek

Nationality: Tunisian

Project Title: البحث الميداني وموازين القو ة في المجتمع البحثي

Mai Abu Moghli

Nationality: Jordan

Project Title: The Ethics of Conducting Research in Palestine: Between Institutionalization and the Power of Practice

Type of Grant: Reflection Paper

Fouzia Borj

Nationality: Moroccan

Project Title: ما وراء احترام المشاركين في البحث الميداني: متطلبات بناء علاقات أخلاقية في ظروف النزاع