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Areas of expertise: International development and migration; dignity, human flourishing and integral human development

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Ilaria Schnyder von Wartensee is the Ford Family Research Assistant Professor at the Kellogg Institute for International Studies at the University of Notre Dame. Her principal research interest is international development and migration with a particular interest in dignity and human development. She helps to implement the Ford Program’s human development projects, drawing on her expertise in qualitative methods, practice, and ethnography in Africa, Europe and Latin America. She also worked collaboratively with the Wellbeing at Work Program, which explores wellbeing in caring professions, with a focus in humanitarian aid workers.

Currently, she is working in collaboration with Notre Dame colleagues to study integration of migrants in Italy and the role of the Catholic Church. In particular, she is studying the integration of 500 refugees through the Humanitarian Corridor Project in Italy. She has undertaken a major evaluation of the Ford Program’s community development work in Nnindye, Uganda, and is also studying and assessing educational projects in Uganda. In addition, she has undertaken a qualitative ​study about entrepreneurship and mentoring ​to complement the work of several Notre Dame economists ​in a semi-urban area in Nairobi, Kenya​.

Schnyder has previously conducted research in Brazil, Ecuador, and Burundi and coauthored Alla radice dello sviluppo: l’importanza del fattore umano [At the Root of Development: The Importance of the Human Factor] (Guerini & Associati/ Fondazione per la Sussidiarietà, 2012). A native of Switzerland, she holds a PhD in international law and economics from Bocconi University in Milan and an MSc in anthropology and development from the London School of Economics.

Recent Work

Viaggi: Notre Dame researchers study refugee resettlement in Italy