Our Fellows

Bosch Foundation Fellow

Nayla Hamadeh is a founding member of the Lebanese Association for History (LAH), an organization that aims to support history teachers and to promote the learning and teaching of history as a discipline in Lebanon. In particular, the organization seeks to raise public awareness about the importance of history, and to ensure that history education in the country is inquiry based and critically engaging. Ms. Hamadeh’s roles at the organization are two-fold: Since 2005, Ms. Hamadeh has been facilitating teacher training workshops all over Lebanon on active teaching strategies. To this end, she currently manages an extensive professional training program for history teachers entitled, “Developing History Teachers Capacity to Foster Historical Thinking”. The project aims to introduce and apply the concepts of historical thinking and to empower learners to think critically about the past. Ms. Hamadeh also works closely with the LAH president on fundraising and strategic planning for the organization.

In terms of her background, Ms. Hamadeh has worked in the Educational Resources Center at International College (IC), Beirut, from 1998 to 2013, where she coordinated the curriculum guide project as well as teachers’ professional development programs. During this period, she also held a teaching position at the Social Studies Department and worked as the coordinator and trainer for the SPEC program proposing a student-centered, problem-based, experiential and collaborative classroom model. Ms. Hamadeh has presented at numerous conferences, including the LAES conference on History education, Euroclio, and the KAICIID Global Forum. She holds an MA in Educational Foundations and Policy Studies from the American University of Beirut and in 2010 she was awarded the “Randa Khoury Innovation in teaching award”.

As an AHDA fellow, Ms. Hamadeh will develop a study tour for students, academics, and media experts that explores commemorative sites and culture in Lebanon, and how memorial processes enable participants to acknowledge different cultures and perspectives within their own communities.

GIZ Fellow

As the Technical Advisor of Arts and Culture for Social Integration unit in FLICT (Facilitating Initiatives for Social Cohesion and Transformation) project, Ms. Haputhanthri oversees a program that focuses on reconciliation and social integration in post-war Sri Lanka. She heads the cultural component of the project, dealing with history, memory and education as well as arts, film and theatre projects. She played a lead role in conceptualizing the program and securing funds at a global proposal call by the European Union entitled, 'Investing in People: Culture as a Vector for Democracy' in 2013, and she presently leads a team and a cluster of partner organizations for the implementation of the project. She is responsible for overall concept and strategy development, networking, financial project management including HR and reporting functions. She is also developing a project on “Memory Work in Post-War Settings,” the ground work for which will occur in the coming months.

In addition, Ms. Haputhanthri is a translator, writer, and arts manager. She is author of a handbook for social activists entitled Cultural Fluency: A Transformative Agenda for Caring Communities. She has worked on developing new knowledge and creative methodologies in promoting social inclusion and has worked from policy to community level, in the areas of education and arts for reconciliation. Ms. Haputhanthri has an MA in Asian Studies from Lund University, Sweden and a BA Honors in Sociology from the University of Delhi, India. She further specialized in History and Anti-racist education at York University, Toronto, Canada. As an AHDA fellow, Ms. Haputhanthri will work on a project proposal on Memory Work in post war Sri Lanka. The multimedia project hopes to support a ‘traveling museum’ on social memory and modern history with a story telling approach; it aims to address the trauma and reflect upon the experiences and root causes of the conflict in Sri Lanka by tackling some of the deep cultural and structural issues embedded in a divided, hierarchical society.