Prof. Alexandre Dormeier Freire

Profile 

Alexandre Dormeier Freire is senior lecturer in the interdisciplinary programmes at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies (IHEID) and Director of the Executive Master in Development Policies and Practices (DPP) including its new iteration on Conflict and Fragility Management since 2013. He is a faculty associate of the Graduate Institute’s Center on Conflict, Development and Peacebuilding (CCDP).

Dr. Dormeier Freire earned a Ph.D. in development studies from the University of Geneva. He is a sociologist of education and works primarily on modern education system transformations with a special focus on children/school/family relations, internationalization of education, social inequalities, education/employment relations, educational choices, and dropouts. He conducted most of his fieldwork research in emerging countries (Southeast Asia, Middle East). Dr. Dormeier Freire current research projects, using art-based methods, focus on the nexus between children, families, community, and schools to explore how these linkages can be harnessed to increase children's resilience to violence in protracted crisis settings. On this topic, he is currently the lead researcher of an 'Innovation Starting Grant' from the MENA Leading House (HES-SO, SEFRI) in collaboration with the Haute Ecole de Travail Social (HETS, Geneva) and the An-Najah University (Palestine). He has been teaching several graduate-level courses on research methods, education, and international cooperation for both the Graduate Institute's Master of Development Studies and International Affairs, as well as for the Executive Master in Development Policy and Practice (DPP).

He is a member of the Scientific Council of the Institute for Research on the Development of Education (IRED - Vietnam), a member of the Board of Directors of COGINTA (police reforms and community security) and a member of various commissions at the City of Geneva and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation.

Thematic expertise

• Development, cooperation, aid policies
• Knowledge, education & aid policies
• Politics of knowledge
• Peacekeeping, peacebuilding, reconstruction policy
• Emerging countries
• Armed conflicts, violence

Geographical expertise 

• Indonesia
• Vietnam
• State of Palestine