The Department of Education at the American University of Beirut in collaboration with Junior researcher coach (JRC) held its 4th Graduate Student Forum, under the title “Becoming an Impactful Researcher: A Journey of Empowerment and Support” on January 24, 25, and 26, 2020 on AUB campus.
The Graduate Education Students Forum was initiated three decades ago at the Department of Education at AUB. By that time, it only consisted of a poster session where graduate students from AUB displayed their research work. By 2015, the organizing team started collaborating with colleagues in other universities in organizing and expanding the participation to students from many universities around Lebanon.
This year the forum is designed as part of a broader initiative to build a Graduate Education Student network (GESN). The main goal of the Network is to equip and support new researchers in the field of education to become change agents who are capable of leading social development in their communities, as well as, contribute to advancing knowledge production in this region. Its diverse sessions expose participants to a safe network of colleagues who are willing to offer and receive the needed support. Specifically, the forum is designed to allow graduate students to share their research with fellow graduate students and faculty members, exchange ideas, and expand their network of professionals.
This year the forum welcomed 165 attendees that were researchers at different phases of their theses, from different domains and from twelve different universities: AUB, LAU, LU, USJ, NDU, Balamand, NDU, USEK, LIU, Azem University, AUST, BAU. It further included a variety of sessions: three panel discussions, poster presentations, three-minute research challenge, eight workshops, round-table research discussions, and a World Café to brainstorm on the vision and organization of the initiated Network. Specifically, presenters ranged between professors (i.e., 16) and graduate students (i.e., 90). Finally, the forum concluded with all attendees committing to support the initiation of the graduate Education student and to organize future activities to support graduate students throughout their research journey.