About us

Consultants

Dr. Guita G. Hourani is the Director of the Lebanese Emigration Research Center (LERC), Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Law and Political Science and Director of the International Campaign of “Lebanon Land of Dialogue among Civilizations and Cultures” at Notre Dame University (NDU), Lebanon.

She has a Ph.D. from the Graduate School of Global Studies, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, Tokyo, Japan. She is currently teaching a course on the role of diasporas in conflict, peace-building and development, a course on the history of Lebanon and a course on project management. She is presently Country of Origin Information Expert on Lebanon for the  Fahamu Refugee Programme (Oxford, England); Migration Expert for the  International Labor Organization (ILO) MAGNET Program; Expert on Citizenship with the European Union Democracy Observatory on Citizenship, Italy; Network Member and Country Expert with the Consortium for Applied Research on International Migration (CARIM), Italy; Editorial Board Member Mashreq & Mahjar Journal of Middle Eastern Migration Studies, USA; Editorial Board Member Maronite Patriarchal Journal, Lebanon; Member of the Editorial Board of the Eastern Mediterranean Texts and Contexts Series at Abelian Academics, a Division of the Abelian Publishing Group, USA; and  Director of Research/Senior Consultant to both the Lebanese Development Network and Carthage Center for Research and Information, Lebanon. She was a Fellow of the Civic Education and Leadership Fellowship program (CELF) at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs of Syracuse University in New York and a Fellow at the Institute of Christian Oriental Research at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C, USA. She also served as a member of the Migration Expert Committee of the Directorate of Migrants at the Lebanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and a member of the UNDP National Academic Working Group on Migration in Lebanon, as well as an expert on migration for the Maronite Patriarchal Synod. Dr. Hourani was an International Development Consultant at the World Bank in Washington, D.C. While in USA, she pioneered a course on the role of women in war, peace and conflict resolution and lectured on it in various universities and institutions.

Her recent publications include: “Bilateral Relations, Security and Migration: Lebanese Expatriates in the Gulf States, European Scientific Journal (ESJ), June 2014; “Regional Differences in the Conditions of Syrian Refugees in Lebanon”, co-authored with Sam van Vliet, Lebanon Support and the Civil Society Knowledge Center, Lebanon, April 2014; “Rapid Assessment of the Syrian Refugees in Lebanon: Employment Profile and Implications on the Labour Markets”, funded by the International Labor Organization (ILO), Carthage Center for Research and Information (CCRI), Lebanon, June 2013; “Proposal on Decent Work for  “Proposal on Decent Work for Migrants in the Middle East 2012-2014 in Jordan, Lebanon, Kuwait, Qatar and the UAE”, funded by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), Switzerland, the Lebanese Development Network, Lebanon, April 2013; “Access to Information in Lebanon: A Survey” published by The Lebanese Transparency Association (LTA) and the Lebanese Development Network (LDN), Lebanon; “Refugees of the Arab Spring: The Syrian Refugees in Lebanon” with Sam van Vliet, published by the Center for Migration and Refugee Studies of the American University of Cairo, Egypt; “Transit Migration of Iraqi Refugees in Lebanon” and “Migration Intentions of Iraqi Refugees in Lebanon” with Kamal Abou Chedid and Eugene Sensenig-Dabbous for the International Organization for Migration (IOM); “Towards Effective Temporary Labor Migration Schemes: Report on Lebanon and Jordan” with Eugene Sensenig- Dabbous for the International Labor Organization (ILO) published by the Consortium for Applied Research on  International Migration (CARIM) of the European University Institute, Italy; “Effect of Migration Policies on Human Rights in the European Neigbourhood: The Cases of Georgia, Kosovo and Lebanon” with Eugene Sensenig-Dabbous and Elie El Hindi for the Directorate-General for External Policies: Policy Department, The European Parliament; “The Kurds of Lebanon: Socioeconomic Mobility and Political Participation Via Naturalization”, published by the Lebanese Emigration Research Center of Notre Dame University, Lebanon; “Naturalized Citizens: Political Participation, Voting Behavior, and Impact on Elections in Lebanon (1996-2007)” with Eugene Sensenig-Dabbous published in The Journal of International Migration and Integration (JIMI); “The Global Financial Crisis: Impact on Lebanese Expatriates in The Gulf”, published by the Center for Migration and Refugee Studies (CMRS), American University of Cairo, Egypt; “Insecurity, Migration and Return: the Case of Lebanon Following the Summer 2006 War” with Eugene Sensenig-Dabbous, published by CARIM, Italy; “Gender Mainstreaming Forced Migration Research” with Eugene Sensenig-Dabbous in Al-Raida, published by the Lebanese American University (LAU) Press; and “Lebanon’s Emigration Integration Policy, Integration Policies: The View from Southern and Eastern Mediterranean Countries”, published by CARIM. She has one published book entitled The Impact of the Summer 2006 War on Migration in Lebanon: Emigration, Re-Migration, Evacuation, and Returning. Her current projects include an edited book on issues related to ‘In Line with the Divine’: the Struggle for Gender Equality in Lebanon,” a memorial volume dedicated to the late Professor Rita Sabat (1974-2013), Dr. Rita Stephan, Dr. Guita Hourani, and Dr. Cornelia Horn (Editors), Abelian Publishing, [forthcoming Summer 2015] and two papers one on the methodology of research in the Middle East and another on Lebanon’s refugee policies both in cooperation with Dr. Eugene Sensenig-Dabbous.

Dr. Hourani has conducted research in over 25 countries and given lectures and papers in more than 24 countries. Dr. Hourani has conceptualized, designed methodologies, implemented and written final reports on projects related to migration, refugees, socioeconomic mobility, political participation, human insecurity, integration policies, access to information, among others. Dr. Hourani has, in the last eight years, received over $441,000 USD in individual and collective grants and bids to conduct various studies.