Professor Ruth Paris Returns from Fulbright Specialist Grant in Israel

Dr. Ruth Paris, associate professor of clinical practice and director of the Family Therapy Certificate Program at Boston University School of Social Work, completed a Fulbright Specialist Program grant in social work at Bar Ilan University (BIU) in Tel Aviv, Israel this spring. From March through April, Paris worked with with faculty and students at Bar Ilan as part of the Specialist Program, which supports short-term exchanges around the world.

Recently, BU School of Social Work caught up with Paris to learn more about her experience. Paris said her four weeks in Israel were jam-packed.

“I met with many individuals—junior faculty, post-docs, and doctoral students,” Paris said. Although her own area of research focuses on families, Paris worked across faculty and students on building capacity around applied clinical research. Paris said this includes closely examining what is being done and asking, “Is this effective?”

Paris said she was impressed by the breadth of research taking place at Bar Ilan in many areas, including trauma, military and veterans, and domestic violence. She added that because of the nature of life in Israel, the society is very much “trauma-informed” where people are “living with trauma and its implications all of the time.” In many ways, Paris explained, this experience “may not be so different from certain communities within the United States.”

During her month-long visit with Bar Ilan, Paris also hosted workshops focused on developing skills in clinical research as well as evaluating effectiveness of interventions. Topics covered included implementing strategies for quantitative and qualitative clinical research, program evaluation and assessment, data organization, and analysis.

In addition to her time at Bar Ilan, Paris traveled around the country speaking on her own research, which included visits to University of Haifa, Hebrew University in Jerusalem and Sapir College in Sderot on the border with Gaza.

Paris told BU School of Social Work she came away from her time in Israel with “tremendous respect” for how much the faculty and students at Bar Ilan accomplish with limited resources.

Although the Fulbright Specialist Program is designed as a short-term exchange, Paris said occasionally faculty can be awarded a second visit if there is an opportunity to build on work being done. In either case, Paris plans to continue fostering the relationships she made at Bar Ilan and hopes to collaborate on future research projects.