Society and Workplace Diversity Research Group

11/05/2026

We are truly delighted to share that Dr. Samah Jabr will be visiting Bergen next week, in connection with receiving an honorary doctorate at the University of Bergen.

On 🗓 *May 20 | 13:45–15:00, Room 129, Christiesgt 12, Gro Mjeldheim Sandal and Ali Teymoori will have the pleasure of engaging in a conversation with Dr. Jabr about her seminal work on the psychological consequences of occupation and political violence among Palestinians.

Dr. Jabr is a highly respected Palestinian consultant psychiatrist, psychotherapist, and writer, with a strong and longstanding commitment to her community. Her work offers powerful insights into how structural and political violence shape mental health both individually and collectively.

This is a rare and meaningful opportunity to learn from her perspectives and experiences, and I hope many will join us for what I believe will be an important and thought‑provoking conversation.

Unik mulighet til å høre overlege, psykoterapeut og skribent Dr. Samah Jabr i hennes æresdoktorforedrag Tårnsalen, Universitetsmuseet 20. mai kl. 10.00–10.45! 👇👇👇
Hør henne også i samtale med Gro M. Sandal og Ali Teymoori på ettermiddagen (På engelsk/In English).

⚜️kl. 10.00–10.45: Æresdoktorforedrag i Tårnsalen, Universitetsmuseet
⚜️kl. 13.45–15.00: Samtale i Auditorium 129, Christies gate 12

Dr. Samah Jabr utnevnes til æresdoktor ved UiB i 2026.

Jabr er en fremtredende palestinsk overlege i psykiatri, psykoterapeut og skribent med et sterkt engasjement i lokalsamfunnet. Hun er særlig kjent for sitt arbeid med de psykologiske konsekvensene av Israels okkupasjon og krigføring i Palestina for palestinere.
Jabr arbeider nå ved George Washington University. og er rådgiver for FNs kontor for narkotika og kriminalitet (UNODC), Redd Barna og Leger Uten Grenser (MSF)
Mer info i kommentarfeltet 👇👇👇
Redd Barna Leger Uten Grenser Fagutvalget for psykologi UiB - PSF

08/05/2026

Yesterday marked a memorable and proud moment for our research group as Michalis Lavdas successfully defended their PhD on mental health among peer refugee helpers in Greece. The auditorium was full, and Michalis delivered a captivating and insightful defense that clearly engaged and impressed the audience.

It has been a privilege to have Michalis in our research group, and we are grateful for all the insights, perspectives, and enthusiasm Michalis has shared during their PhD journey.

Congratulations, Michalis!✨️🎉✨️

30/04/2026

🎓 Big event alert - PhD Defence of Michalis

We are excited to share that Michalis Lavdas will defend their PhD next week, on 7 May at 09:15.

We believe the topic of their dissertation will be of interest to many of our followers: 📌 Mental health among refugees helping other refugees.

The studies included in the dissertation are situated in the Greek context and focus on psychological well‑being, resilience, and the crucial role of community support under conditions of displacement and adversity.

If you live in, or are visiting, Bergen at this time, we warmly encourage you to take the opportunity to attend the PhD defence.
The dissertation is open to the public and will be in English. We wish Michalis all the best of luck with the PhD defense.

Michalis Lavdas disputerer 7.5.2026 for ph.d.-graden ved Universitetet i Bergen med avhandlingen "Refugees Helping Refugees: Mental Health Implications for Peer Refugee Helpers in Greece".

20/01/2026

Today, we received wonderful news: the University of Bergen has decided to award an honorary doctorate to Dr. Samah Jabr (photo), whom we had the privilege of nominating. Dr. Jabr is an outstanding psychiatrist and writer who has long illuminated the psychological consequences of war and occupation in Palestine. Her work combines medical expertise with activism, consistently highlighting the mental‑health impacts of colonial violence, torture, trauma, and prolonged conflict. We are confident that she will bring important insights to our team and to the faculty. A heartfelt thank you to the University of Bergen for recognizing her invaluable contributions and for supporting the important work ahead.
https://www.uib.no/.../ten-new-honorary-doctorates-uib

19/11/2025

"Sterkt og nyansert om mennesker på flukt". Glad for å se den fine omtalen av boken vår, Psykisk helsehjelp etter flukten, som nylig er publisert i Tidsskrift for Norsk Psykologforening.
Lenke til omtale her:

https://www.psykologtidsskriftet.no/.../2025as11ae-Sterkt...

28/10/2025

Publication alert💥 Congratulations to Pierina and co-authors!✨ This new and interesting paper presents data from a longitudinal study comparing mental health indicators among migrants and non-migrants during the pandemic. Many individuals experienced psychological distress, loneliness, and varying levels of life satisfaction during this period. However, the pandemic had a disproportionate impact on the health and well-being of migrants. The findings showed that migrants consistently reported higher levels of psychological distress and loneliness compared to non-migrants throughout the pandemic, while levels of life satisfaction remained similar across both groups.

06/10/2025

Congratulations to Sam and Hege who recently published a piece in Social Science and Medicine together with Jonas Kunst at BI Oslo.

Findings suggest that migrants may be more open to seeking psychological help than they assume other migrants to be. Simultaneously, they rate Norwegians as more willing to seek help than both themselves and other migrants. But acculturation is associated with whose norms, migrant or majority, influence willingness to seek help.

Read the kronikk on Dagens Medisin, or go to the original source, both posted below!

https://www.dagensmedisin.no/forskning-psykisk-

https://doi-org.ezproxy.uio.no/10.1016/j.socscimed.2025.118598helse/innvandrere-er-mer-apne-for-psykisk-helsehjelp-enn-vi-tror-og-enn-de-tror-selv/707725

04/10/2025

📚 Bokbad: Mot til å lære

Hva skjer når den som hjelper selv trenger hjelp?
I sin nye bok Mot til å lære – veier til vekst og mening i hjelperyrkene tar Per Einar Binder oss tett på terapeuters egne utfordringer – og hvordan disse kan bli en vei til både faglig styrke og personlig utvikling.

Vi møter blant andre Eva, som oppdager at hennes egen dødsangst gir rom for dypere møter med pasienter. Sofia, som må lære å sette grenser for å unngå utbrenthet. Og Jakob, som etter mange år i feltet har mistet kontakten med det som ga jobben mening.

I samtale med professor Lennart Lorås løftes fortellingene, forskningen og de praktiske verktøyene frem – og vi får en åpen samtale om hvordan man kan bevare både faglighet og menneskelighet i hjelperrollen.

📅 27. oktober 2025
⏰ 11:00–12:00
📍 Kantinen, Årstadveien 17, Alrek helseklynge

https://alrekhelseklynge.no/arrangementer/mot-til-a-laere-en-boksamtale-om-hjelperens-utvikling/

Det psykologiske fakultet ved UiB
Høgskulen på Vestlandet HVL

30/09/2025

"Growing amidst war: Which mental health interventions for the children and youth of Gaza living under prolonged armed conflict and protracted violence?" was the title of the presidential symposium of the World Association for Psychosocial Rehabilitation (https://www.wapr.org/) World Congress in Vancouver. The symposium was chaired by Dr. Angelo Barbato, with main presenter Dr. Audrey Mc Mahon, working currently as a child psychiatrist in Gaza with MSF and ICRC, and Michalis Lavdas, from our research group as the discussant. Michalis highlighted three main points of Audrey's talk, specifically, the mental health consequences of human rights abuses, new concepts of addressing social suffering depathologizing reactions to extreme adversity, and the applicability of scalable psychological interventions.
Michalis, further presented qualitative and quantitative results of their collaborative research under their PhD project, taking place in Greece with Afghan, Iranian and Syrian Peer Refugee Helpers, in a separate session, calling for the need to appropriately support peer refugee helpers in humanitarian settings.

24/09/2025

One highlight this week was the visit of professor Adam Komisarof from Keio University in Japan. He delivered an impressive presentation on the topic "Social Markers of Acceptance (SMA): Global Research, Local Applications." The presentation raised important questions about what it truly takes for immigrants to be accepted in their new country. More fundamentally, it prompted us to consider—what does it actually mean to be Norwegian, Japanese, or Greek? The answers to these questions are not necessarily straightforward. What are your thoughts?

If you are interested in cross-cultural communication, you may also want to check out the the book professor Komisarof recently published together with colleagues.

https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/the-sage-handbook-of-intercultural-communication/book285700