Professional Affiliation

Former Vice President, Ford Foundation

Expert Bio

Alexander Wilde was Vice President for Communications at the Ford Foundation and headed Ford’s regional office for the Andes and Southern Cone. He was also a senior fellow at the Helen Kellogg Institute (Notre Dame) and the Latin American Program of the Woodrow Wilson Center. He formerly directed the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) and has taught at Georgetown, George Washington, Notre Dame, Lawrence (Wis.), Haverford College and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Most recently, Dr. Wilde directed the CLALS project on Religion and Violence in Latin America, supported by a two-year grant from the Luce Foundation.

His scholarly research has addressed religion, human rights, democracy and historical memory in Latin America. He is the co-editor of The Progressive Church in Latin America and author of Conversaciones de caballeros: La quiebra de la democracia en Colombia. He serves on several international advisory boards and has advised various award-winning documentary films related to the themes of his research. He holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from Columbia University and a B.A. in Government from Lawrence University.

Major Publications

“Human Rights in Two Latin American Democracies.” In Sustaining Human Rights in the Twenty-first Century: Strategies from Latin America, edited by Katherine Hite and Mark Ungar, 35-71. Baltimore, MD: Woodrow Wilson Center Press, Johns Hopkins University Press (2013).

“A Season of Memory: Human Rights in Chile’s Long Transition.” In The Politics of Memory in Chile: From Pinochet to Bachelet, edited by Cath Collins, Katherine Hite, and Alfredo Joignant, 31-60. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner (2013).