Sebastian Abdallah

Profile

Sebastian is a community worker, an Arabist and a sociologist. He works as an assistant professor of Social Work at the University of Humanistic Studies in Utrecht, the Netherlands. His teaching and research focus on developing expertise in working with young people. He emphasizes interactionist dynamics, experience, emotion and embodied engagement at the microlevel, and developing influence and power at the mezzo- and macrolevels. He is (co-)author of various publications, including a book of insights and applications for a social-developmental approach of talent, under the Dutch title “Talentgericht werken” (2016), and a Dutch practical guide that translates as “Arranging youth agency for social change” (2023). He has contributed chapters to leading Dutch books in the field that translate as Textbook Social Work (2024), Contemplating Social Work (2021), Social Resistance work (2021) and What Works (2012). He obtained his PhD at the University of Amsterdam, defending his dissertation “Struggles for success. Youth work rituals in Amsterdam and Beirut” (2017). He has been on the editorial board for a Dutch platform for Social Issues named ‘Sociale Vraagstukken’ since 2018.

Sebastian has designed educational programs in Social Change & Action, Socio-Cultural Issues, and Critical Youth Studies. In the field, he partners with Combiwel, Dock, Young in Prison, the Richard Krajicek Foundation, the Salvation Army, Sociaal Cement, Criminal Minded, Stichting Sitara and independent entrepreneurs. Internationally, he is affiliated with Antwerp University, Boston University and the American University of Beirut.