School of Education

Biography of Dr Philibert Gakwenzire
Philibert Gakwenzire is a PhD holder in History, History of Art and Archaeology from ULB-Université Libre de Bruxelles, in Belgium. He presented his thesis in January 2017 on history of genocide against the Rwandan Tutsi. The research has been conducted through local approach where he used unexploited archives conserved at local, national and international level. He is also holder of MA in Management of Cultural Heritage from Université Senghor located in Alexandria city in Egypt in 2005 and a BA in History from the University of Rwanda in 2000.
Before being recruited as lecturer-researcher in University of Rwanda-College of Education in January 2019, Dr Gakwenzire Philibert wasa Senior Lecturer and Researcher in University of Kibungo(UNIK) from 2006. In that university he has been director of research and occupied twice the post of Head of Department of Arts and Humanities. He conducted several trainings, workshops, seminars, conferences and symposia where he get :
• Certificate from a two-week course on “Genocide and Human Rights”, International Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies (A division of the Zoryan Institute), University of Toronto, Canada, July-August 2008
• Certificate of “Curriculum Development and Review”, University of Glasgow, Higher Education Council and University of Stirling, Kigali, Rwanda, August 2010
• Certificate of “Language Proficiency”, National University of Rwanda, Huye, Rwanda, February 2010
• Certificate of “Strategic Planning, Academic Program Development and Grant Writing and Research Development”, Institute of Agriculture, Technology and Education of Kibungo (INATEK) and William Pen University, Kibungo, Rwanda, March 2011
• Certificate of “Bearing Witness Rwanda”, Peace Institute International and Memos Learning from History, Kigali, Rwanda, April 2011
• Certificate of “Bearing Witness Rwanda”, Peace Institute International and Memos Learning from History, Kigali, Rwanda, April 2010
• Certificate of “ Les mots du génocide au Rwanda- Discourse on the Rwanda Genocide’’, Université du Québec à Rimouski, Kigali, Rwanda, April 2006
• Certificate of ‘’ Séminaire spécial consacré à l’enseignement de la Shoah et la mémoire du Génocide des Tutsi’’, International School for HolocaustStudies, Jerusalem, Israël, 2004
• CertificatefromMémorial de la Shoah/Centre de Documentation Juive Contemporaine, Paris, France, 2004
• Certificate of ‘’Understanding Trauma and Genocide : Advancing Healing and Reconciliation’’, National Unity and Reconciliation, University of Massachusetts of Amhrest, Kigali, Rwanda, January 2003
His courses are about Comparative History of Genocide, Contemporary History of Rwanda, Contemporary History of Africa and others. He is author of several publications on Memory and History of Genocide, Tutsi genocide survivors’ life,Mass Violence, Human Rights and Peace Building.
He is active in collaborative research projects at national and international level. With his colleagues from Rwandan, French, British and Belgian Universities he is initiated “RwandaMAP2020 (Memories, Archives and Heritage). Knowing the genocide of the Tutsi : the challengesof a researcherin front of the traces of the extermination” which is a research program aimed to set up an international research team on the traces of the Rwandan Tutsi genocide in order to face a series of challenges to create deep and lasting collective dynamics of enrichment of knowledge on Tutsi genocide.
For his current researches, he is deepening several themes from his thesis. In 2019, he was laureate of Atlas grant supported by IFRA and FMSH to conduct his postdoctoral research in Nanterre University in Paris where he stayed from September to December 2019.

Email : gakwenzirep@yahoo.fr
Tel : 0788417815