Rodrigo Mena
Asst. professor of Disasters and Humanitarian Action
International Institute of Social Studies (ISS) of Erasmus University Rotterdam; Deputy Director, Humanitarian Studies Centre, The Hague
| Location | Den Haag, Netherlands |
| Gender and Title | Male, Dr. |
| mena@iss.nl | |
| Telephone | |
| Website | https://www.iss.nl/mena |
| Bio | I am an interdisciplinary researcher focused on the everyday practices of disaster and humanitarian governance, particularly in conflict-affected and vulnerable contexts. Prior to my current positions, I conducted research and worked as a practitioner for the Chilean government, the UN, and multiple NGOs and international organisations. As a consultant and researcher, my work has taken me to multiple disasters and conflict-affected areas such as Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Chile, Colombia, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, and Yemen. At the moment, I have a particular interest in researching the compound effects and challenges of climate change, protracted crises, and displacement for humanitarian aid and disaster response and disaster risk reduction (DRR). I am also interested in the ethical, safety, and security aspects of (fieldwork/in-situ) research. In more detail, I coordinate the European Research Council (ERC) project “Humanitarian Governance: Alternatives, advocacy, accountability”, and the Impact Journey Project “Everyday Risk of Humanitarian and Disaster Research”. As university asst. professor at the ISS (The Netherlands) and visiting professor at the UN University for Peace (Costa Rica), I teach humanitarian action, disasters and disaster risk reduction, mixed methods (including quantitative analysis for social scientists), research ethics, and safety and security of fieldwork research. More recently I have been appointed as Deputy Director of the Humanitarian Studies Centre. I also serve as a reviewer in leading journals and often take research, monitoring and evaluation, and advisory consultancy work. This allows me to develop action research and stay close to the experiences and processes taking place in my fields of study. |