Giacaman is a professor of public health at the Institute of Community and Public Health, Birzeit University, West Bank, occupied Palestinian territory. She is a founding member of the Institute, and has worked there for 33 years. During the 1980s, she participated as a researcher and practitioner in the Palestinian social action movement, which led to the development of the Palestinian primary health care model. During the 1990’s, she also participated in building the Palestinian community-based disability rehabilitation network. Since 2000, Professor Giacaman has sought to understand the impact of chronic war-like conditions and excessive exposure to violence on the health and well-being of Palestinians, especially their psychosocial health; and ways in which interventions could generate the needed active and positive resilience and resistance to ongoing war-like conditions, especially among youth. She has published extensively, in scholarly journals (such as the European Journal of Public Health), edited volumes, as well as several volumes and reports published locally. She recently co-edited Public Health in the Arab World: Towards a Multidisciplinary Perspective, with colleagues from the Faculty of Health Sciences at the American University of Beirut, (forthcoming in 2012, University Press ).
Email: rita@birzeit.edu
Institute of Community and Public Health website: icph.birzeit.edu
