Dorothea Hilhorst

Dorothea is Professor of Humanitarian Studies at ISS/EUR, where she focuses on aid-society relations, and how aid is embedded in the context and shaped by actors in and around programmes for protection, service delivery and capacity development. She has a special interest in the intersections of humanitarianism with development, peacebuilding and gender-relations.

Dorothea’s research programmes have taken place in settings affected by disaster, conflict and fragility, including Afghanistan, Angola, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, the Philippines, Rwanda, South Sudan, and Sri Lanka. Author of several publications including ‘Disaster Risk Reduction and protracted violent conflict. The case of Afghanistan’ and Government and civil society organizations: Close but comfortable?’, her work focuses on the everyday practices of humanitarian aid, disaster risk reduction, climate change adaptation, reconstruction and peace building. She currently heads an ERC advanced grant project on humanitarian governance.

Dorothea is also President of the International Humanitarian Studies Association and Honorary Director of Creged – Centre de Recherche et d’Expertise en Genre et Développement