Newcomers as Agents for Social Change: Learning from the Italian Experience

PhD, holds a professorship on artistic and movement-oriented methods in Social Work, with focus on interactive theatre, mindfulness and conflict transformation in the Faculty of Applied Social Science at the University of Applied Science Würzburg (FHWS), Würzburg, Germany. Her expertise lies in participatory, experienced based, empowering methods for individuals and for social transformation in intercultural contexts. She is head of the project “International Social Work Acting in Crisis – attitude matters (AttiMa)” which is implemented in a collaboration with Jordan and Lebanon and aims at fostering the resilience of social workers to act in integrity and constructively in crises situations.

PhD, is a social worker and a sociologist. She is Associate professor of Sociology of Migration and International Social Work, coordinator of Master and Degree in Social Work, Department Culture e Società, University of Palermo, Italy, member of Council of Professors in the PHD course in “Estudios Migratorios”, University of Granada and in the PHD course in “Dinamica dei sistemi”, University of Palermo. She is currently engaged in national and international research programs on intercultural competences, international social work, community mediation for migrants’ integration and on protection of vulnerabilities in reception practices.