Professor Thea Hilhorst new member of WOTRO board

6 January 2011

The General board of NWO appointed professor Thea Hilhorst as new member of the WOTRO board as from 1 January 2011. Thea Hilhorst is Professor of Humanitarian Assistance and Reconstruction at the Wageningen University and Research Centre (WUR), focusing on emergencies and emergency-related interventions in the developing world. Her research concerns the realities of humanitarian crises and fragile states.

In 1988, Thea Hilhorst gained her doctorate in Rural Development Sociology at the Wageningen University and Research Centre (WUR). After her graduation, Thea Hilhorst held several research positions and worked for the Dutch development organisation CORDAID. She then became for three years a research officer of a Philippine NGO. On the basis of this research experience she wrote her dissertation, which was an organizational ethnography (aidnography) of this NGO and its surrounding networks, clientele and donors (The Real World of NGOs. Discourses, Diversity and Development, Zedbooks, 2003). She graduated – with distinction - in 2000.

At present, as Professor of Humanitarian Assistance and Reconstruction, her publications focus on the everyday practices of humanitarian aid, disaster risk reduction, climate change adaptation, reconstruction and peace building. She coordinates research programmes in Angola, DRC, Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Sudan, Mozambique and Uganda.

Furthermore, Thea Hilhorst is a supervisory board member of SNV and the Evert Vermeer Stichting. She takes part in several initiatives to enhance quality debates in the humanitarian sector, including the Netherlands Humanitarian Panel and the Café Humanitaire. She is the general secretary of the International Humanitarian Studies Association (IHSA).