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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, part of the Keough School of Global Affairs at the University of Notre Dame. Her principal research interest is international development and migration with a particular interest in dignity and human development.

Currently, Schnyder von Wartensee is working in collaboration with Notre Dame colleague Clemens Sedmak to study the integration of migrants in Italy and the role of the Catholic Church. In particular, they are studying the integration of 500 refugees resettled through the Humanitarian Corridor Project in Italy. Their newly launched web documentary, Human Lines, features a collection of microstories that relate the dynamics, faces, beauty, and difficulties that make up and distinguish the Humanitarian Corridors project. The Human Lines portal will also host reports and academic articles.

Schnyder von Wartensee helps to implement human development projects for the Ford Program in Human Development Studies and Solidarity, drawing on her expertise in qualitative methods, practice, and ethnography in Africa, Europe and Latin America. She also has worked collaboratively with the Wellbeing at Work Program, which explores wellbeing in caring professions, with a focus in humanitarian aid workers. She also has undertaken a major evaluation of the Ford Program’s community development work in Nnindye, Uganda, and is 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

Web Documentary: Human Lines

Human Lines Facebook page

Viaggi: Notre Dame researchers study refugee resettlement in Italy