Through self-initiated research projects or collaborations with academic and research institutions, I explore how humanitarian action unfolds and how the aid sector trully functions. I enjoy sharing my reflections, exploring new avenues of research, and engaging in collective initiatives that contribute to shedding light on how social realities are constructed and transformed. I publish my work in various journals, reviews and online platforms.

Grounded in social-science theories and methodologies, my motivation lies in understanding and revealing the dynamics that operate beneath the visible reality of humanitarian aid, by approaching humanitarian action as a social construct.

Such exploration makes it possible not only to better understand how the social reality of humanitarian action develops, but also to help practitioners think differently about their work and consider new ways of approaching it. For me, good research — beyond intellectual and methodological rigour — is research that helps actors reflect on their role, their practices and their positioning within a broader environment.

​​

More specifically, I am interested in exploring theories of change, the evolution of mental representations, the unintended effects of policies and programmes, the intersectionality of vulnerabilities, the social construction of identities, and power dynamics within social groups. My work is inspired by a wide range of philosophical and sociological paradigms, particularly phenomenology, constructivism, functionalism and post-modern thought.

One of my major pieces of research, Thinking About the Evolution of the Humanitarian Sector: An Exploration Within the World of Ideas. A Socio-Phenomenological Approach to Change, was conducted between 2022 and 2023. Based on an extensive literature review of around 8,000 documents produced mainly within the international humanitarian system, this project aimed to understand how the sector has evolved since its structuring in the 1990s. Conceived as a kind of speleological exploration, it examines how the idea of humanitarian action has changed over time, offering both a historical perspective on this evolution and revealing the presence of forces and mechanisms that operate autonomously from individual actors and shape the idea of humanitarian aid over time. This provides a broader reading of how change unfolds within the sector.

I have also worked on numerous other research initiatives, including the development of norms in refugee policy, the leading role of the United Nations in humanitarian action, attacks on health care in crisis settings, and approaches to humanitarian policy review. I am currently developing a project on the social effects of the mobilisation of humanitarian principles. Its aim is to understand how, independently of their substantive content, these principles function as a structuring mechanism within the social group that constitutes the “international humanitarian system” — acting as a marker of collective identity, a tool of legitimation and delegitimation, and a social device that shapes (but also constrains) the field of what is thinkable in humanitarian action.

 

I enjoy sharing my reflections — which are always evolving — exploring new avenues of research, and engaging in collaborations that contribute to shedding light on how social realities are constructed and transformed. Let's be in touch!