Ronald Luwangula, Uganda

Curriculum Vitae

Ronald Luwangula holds a PhD from Alpen Adria University Klagenfurt, Austria. Currently he is a Lecturer at the Department of Social Work and Social Administration at Makerere University in Uganda. His research interests are child protection, social protection and indigenous social work models. He has been involved in the two phases of the APPEAR funded projects Professional Social Work in East Africa. Under PROSOWO I, he was a scholar and a co-author of a book chapter in the publication titled: Professional Social Work in East Africa. Under PROSOWO II, he worked as a Senior Researcher and Co-author of the new book in Uganda titled: Social Work Practice in Uganda. He is also a lead author of two chapters and a co-author of another chapter in the new PROSOWO II book titled: Social work practice in Africa: Indigenous and Innovative approaches. From 2015 - 2017 he worked as Post-Doctoral Fellow: Disability and Technology Project, Makerere University-Child Health and Development Centre

Reflection

At a personal level, I registered growth. My ability to engage topical issues and debates from a multi-dimensional angle has improved tremendously. I am able to contribute to important discourses substantially. At a professional level, my education in Austria aided me to clearly define my niche, that is, child protection, social protection and indigenous social work. Particularly, the opportunities for OeAD scholars from the different universities in Austria meeting, making presentations, feasting together and so on were particularly important. This gave some of the opportunity to learn about bits and pieces of cultures from both the global north and global south. Especially that more often than note, Africa is confused by many to be homogenous, I particularly got the opportunity to learn about culture in African contexts such as Ethiopia. As a social work educator and child protection trainer, my study in Austria left a big mark on my approach to teaching and respect for my students or trainees. Sensitivity to the unique needs of trainees is a key factor in my preparation for training/lecture. I also very much appreciated the necessity to respect the participants.