Dorothea Hilhorst is professor of humanitarian studies at the International Institute for Social Studies (ISS) of Erasmus University in The Hague.

Her work focuses on the study of societies and vulnerable communities experiencing humanitarian crisis originating from disaster, conflict, refugee situations, and/ or political collapse. She studies causes and impact of crisis; how people, communities and authorities respond to them, including efforts for prevention and preparedness; how humanitarian action and other external interventions are organized and affect the recovery from crises; and the institutional changes that crises and crisis response engender.

One of her recent research programme concerns cases where ‘conflict meets disaster’, that studies disaster governance in high-conflict, low-conflict and post-conflict societies. She currently implements an ERC advanced grant programme on humanitarian governance. In 2023, she initiated the Hague Humanitarian Studies Centre. She is a member of the Royal Dutch Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW).