The Lamia Sabbah Ali Ahmad National Psychology Research Day 2026
Resilience, Healing, and Human Growth
Date
Saturday, November 21, 2026
Welcome Message
Following the success of the inaugural Lamia Sabbah Ali Ahmad National Research Day last year, the Psychology Program at LAU is thrilled to announce its second edition on November 21, 2026, focusing on “Resilience, Healing, and Human Growth”.
Student research has taken the forefront at LAU and across various universities in Lebanon; however, no events so far have aimed at bringing together undergraduate and graduate students to share their experiences conducting research, and sharing their findings with peers in the field.
The Department of Psychology and Education at the Lebanese American University aims to innovate on this front, promoting visibility of the Psychology Program and LAU as a whole, on the undergraduate research scene. We hope to host students from various Lebanese psychology departments / programs (AUB, USJ, USEK, Haigazian, Balamand, NDU, and UL, among others) for this second National Research Day in Psychology, to share their research findings.
Undergraduate and graduate students will have to submit their abstract for review by the scientific committee to secure a spot for 1) an oral presentation, or 2) a poster presentation. The abstract should include the following sections: Background, Aim, Methods, Results and Conclusion. Published and unpublished studies will be accepted. Abstracts without results or ethics committee approval numbers will be automatically rejected.
The organizing committee will be formed by LAU faculty, but the scientific committee should be selected from different universities to decide on the selected proposals. We will also have a panel of speakers who will discuss the importance and challenges of trauma and resilience research in Lebanon, as well as a panel of student researchers sharing their challenges in conducting psychology research in our culture.
We hope this initiative will facilitate cross-university research collaborations amongst students and faculty, and we have the honor of hosting it in memory of LAU Psychology Alumna Ms. Lamia Sabbah Ali Ahmad, whose 1959 seminal thesis on child psychology proves to the importance of scientific research in our field.
Tentative Program
| 8.30 | Registration |
| 9:00 – 9:15 | Welcome speeches |
| 9:15 – 10.00 |
Panel: Resilience, Healing, and Human Growth (Moderator: Myriam El Khoury Malhame (LAU), trauma expert)
|
| 10.00 – 10.20 |
Key learning and challenges of conducting Psychology research in Lebanon (Moderator: Sahar Obeid (LAU), conference co-organizer)
|
| 10.30 – 12.00 |
Oral presentations – Parallel sessions
|
| 12.00 - 13.00 | Lunch |
| 13.00 – 14.30 |
Oral presentations – Parallel sessions
|
| 14.30 – 15.15 |
Coffee Break and Poster presentations
|
| 15.30 – 16.00 | Awards ceremony and Closing speech |
Speakers
Coming soon
Registration
You can register your attendance here
Abstract submission
Submission Guidelines
- The official language of the conference is English; therefore, all abstracts and presentations must be in English.
- Abstracts should include the following sections: Background, Aim, Methods, Results, Conclusion, and Keywords.
- Abstracts should not exceed 300 words.
- Both published and unpublished theses/studies are eligible.
- Abstracts must include ethics committee approval numbers; those without will be automatically rejected.
- The theme of this year’s Research Day is “Resilience, Healing, and Human Growth”. Abstracts are invited under two main categories:
- 1) Resilience and Trauma Research
- 2) The Use of Artificial Intelligence in Facing Stress: Innovations and Emerging Trends in Stress Support
- Kindly submit your abstract by September 13, 2026, to secure a spot for the oral or poster presentations. Submit your abstract here
- The scientific committee will review submissions by the early October 2026 to decide on the selected participants.
- Acceptance or rejection notifications will be sent by mid October, 2026.
Committees
Organizing Committee:
- Dr. Sahar Obeïd
Conference co-organizer
Assistant Professor of Psychology
Department of Psychology and Education (DPE) - Dr. Pia Tohme
Conference co-organizer
Associate Professor of Clinical Psychology
Chairperson, Department of Psychology and Education (DPE)
Scientific Committee:
- Dr. Nayla Nahas (Balamand)
- Dr. Noura Khoury (Balamand)
- Dr. Prince Razzouk (UL/USEK)
- Dr. Cindy Turk (USEK)
- Dr. Simon Abou Jaoude (NDU)
- Dr. Georges Chedid (USJ)
- Dr. Nadia Dandan (AUBMC)
- Dr. Tania Bosqui (AUB)
- Dr. Leila Dirani (AUBMC)
- Dr. Toni Sawma (LAU)
- Dr. Emmanuelle Awad (LAU)