2025 AMENA-PSY CONFERENCE
The American Arab, Middle Eastern, and North African Psychological Association (AMENA-Psy) is hosting our 6th Annual AMENA-Psy Conference. The conference is designed to balance the delivery of content and the opportunity for interactive discussion between attendees and presenters in a virtual environment. We invite AMENA-Psy members and non-members to join us!
The theme of this year's conference is: Bridging Communities: Resilience and Solidarity Across Borders of Identity and Oppression
In a world marked by displacement, violence, and systemic injustice, the need to build bridges—across communities, identities, and disciplines—has never been more urgent. This year’s AMENA-Psy conference invites proposals that center intergroup solidarity, resilience, and collective healing in the face of oppression and genocide.
We welcome submissions that explore how individuals and communities navigate cultural trauma, resist erasure, and foster mental health through shared struggle and mutual care. We especially encourage work that uplifts intersectional identities and approaches—across race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, migration status, religion, and disability—and that reflects a commitment to justice-informed, culturally grounded, and trauma-aware practice.
We invite seasoned researchers and clinicians, as well as early career professionals, students, activists, and artists to submit material whether fully developed, in-progress or in early stages of creation.
We encourage individuals from all fields of psychology, including educational/school, social, health, developmental, community, I/O, counseling, clinical, international, and beyond, to submit proposals. Submissions from multidisciplinary, international, and student scholars are welcome!
Possible Topics May Include
Culturally responsive models of collective healing and community care
Mental health responses to genocide, ethnic cleansing, and occupation
Intergroup solidarity and coalition-building in therapeutic and/or academic spaces
Addressing vicarious trauma and burnout among practitioners
Decolonial, indigenous, and ancestral healing traditions
Resilience in displaced, diasporic, and refugee communities
Gender, sexuality, and intersectionality in community mental health
Community organizing, resistance, and liberation psychology
Case studies or lived experiences highlighting healing through solidarity
Navigating self-care in spaces and institutions that seek to silence and/or exclude MENA voices
Important Dates
Deadline for proposal submission: Friday, August 1, 2025
Response to submission: Monday, September 1, 2025
Conference Dates: Saturday, October 25th, 2025
Time: TBD
PROPOSAL SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS
We strongly encourage review of Submission Guide for Proposals Handout for detailed information on presentation types, proposal formatting, and step-by-step instructions for submission. Proposals will be submitted via Google Forms.
Brief Description of Presentation Types:
PAPER: Papers will be orally presented to an audience, and the author(s) can decide on the format of the presentation, including whether there will be any visual aids. This should be a formal presentation of theoretical issues, original data collection, clinical case material, treatment methods, and/or program evaluations and descriptions (60 minutes). Additional requirements for submission are outlined in the Submission Guide.
ROUNDTABLE: Roundtables provide a small group forum for discussion and debate of a specific topic. Facilitators open this session type with brief remarks or viewpoints on a specific topic that can be discussed with the audience. This format is especially appropriate for exploration and feedback of a topic, engaging in in-depth discussion or debate, and meeting colleagues with similar interests (60 minutes). Additional requirements for submission are outlined in the Submission Guide.
SYMPOSIUM: A symposium is a session focused on a common issue in which individual authors present their diverse views with the goal of integrating the perspectives into a meaningful whole. Symposia do not focus on only one paper but are meant to involve multiple authors to present in-depth knowledge around common themes within clinical practice, research, training, and/or policy; a discussant is optional (60 minutes). Additional requirements for submission are outlined in the Submission Guide.
POSTER: Visually inviting presentation of an individual study or project, including graphs, tables, pictures, etc. Posters should highlight the key components of the particular type of work. Presenters must be available for discussion of their work at the poster session. In an effort to increase opportunities for masters and doctoral students in psychology to present their scholarship, we encourage students to be first authors on poster presentations (50 minutes).
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PROPOSAL SUBMISSION MATERIALS & PROCEDURES
To submit your proposal for consideration, you will need to complete the following:
- Respond to all questions in our submission portal via Google Forms.
- Upload CV’s for each author in the Google Form.
- Upload abstract as MS Word document in the Google Form, following the format and abstract guidelines outlined in the Submission Guide for Proposals Handout.
Submitting a proposal implies a commitment to attend the conference and deliver the proposed presentation if accepted. The first author should deliver the presentation. All presenters and attendees must register for the conference.
All submissions must consist of the following:
- Abstract: A 250-500-word abstract describing the proposed session and scholarly references
- Short description of the presentations tie to the theme
- Curriculum vitae
Proposals will be evaluated based on the following criteria:
- Relevance to the conference theme
- Contribution to the field of MENA Psychology through empirical quantitative and qualitative research, theory, practice, training and education, and/or advocacy
- Organization, clarity, and quality of writing
Notice of acceptance/rejection: Notification of acceptance or rejection of proposals will be made to the corresponding author via email. The corresponding author has the responsibility to inform other authors of all communications.
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Check back for updates and more!
Conference Co-Chairs: Nadia Alsamadi, Psy.D & Mohamed Elnakib, PsyD.
Programming Chair: Nicole McKelvey, Psy.D.
Questions: amenapsyconference[at]gmail.com
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