Dr Darwis is an Engineering-Architect, Historian, and Associate Professor at the University of Le Havre. He obtained his doctorate degree at the University of Paris-Sorbonne, and specialised in the Contemporary History of the Arab and Muslim World (1999), with a doctoral thesis entitled:From French Creation to Egyptian Development. Architectural and Social Transformations of a City in the Muslim World. The case of Ismailia, Egypt, 1862-1993.
His numerous works have been published in Indonesian, Dutch, English and French. As a socially engaged architect, Dr Darwis participated in the advocacy and development of Kampung Tchodé, a slum area on the Tchodé riverbank of Yogyakarta, Indonesia, from 1980 to 1986 (which earned him the Aga Khan Award for Architecture 1992).
As an Associate Professor in Oriental Languages and Civilisations, especially of the Arab, Muslim and Malay- Indonesian World at the University of Le Havre (where he has been lecturing since 1995), Dr Darwis is also the Director of the Master’s Degree in International Management specialised in Exchanges with Asia, at the Faculty of International Affairs at University of Le Havre, since 2004.