Education career

1976 - 1983
Elementary and Junior Secondary School, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

1983 - 1986
Teferi Makonen High School, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

1986 - 1990
Undergraduate Study in History and Education, Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia

1994 - 1997
MA in Social Anthropology, Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia /Hamburg University, Germany

2000 - 2003
PhD in Social Anthropology, Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology/Martin- Luther- University, Halle- Wittenberg, Germany (PhD obtained in July 2003)

Dissertation title: Ethnic groups and Conflict: The case of Anywaa-Nuer relations Supervisors: Professor Günther Schlee and Professor Richard Rottenburg

Professional experience

May 2003 - March 2005
Post-doctoral Research Fellow, 21st Century Centre of Excellence, University of Osaka, Japan

January 2004 - May 2005
Project adviser to the Gambella Peace and Development Council

1997 - 1999
Program Coordinator, ACORD-Ethiopia, Gambella Pastoral Development Program

1994 - 1998
Development Consultant for ILKA, Farm Africa, GTZ and DVV (Deutscher Volkshochschulverbund)

1990-1993
Lecturer in History, Alemaya University, Ethiopia

Fieldwork experience

November - December 2004
Fieldwork in North America among the Anywaa diaspora

July - September 2003
Fieldwork in Kenya, Sudan and Ethiopia, as part of the transnationality project, University of Osaka

August - September 2002
Fieldwork in Khartoum and Nairobi, part of the research project, “Social and Political Settings of Refugees: Forced Displacement, State, International Organizations, and NGOs in the North East and Great Lakes Regions in Africa,” a project funded by a grant-in-aid for scientific research of the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology.

June 2000 - June 2001; February - March 2002
Dissertation Fieldwork in Gambella (Western Ethiopia); Addis Ababa; Pochalla district (Southern Sudan)

January 1996 - October 1996
Fieldwork in Oyda, Southern Ethiopia, as part of the partial fulfillment for MA in Social Anthropology

Teaching experience

1990 - 1994
Lecturing at Alemaya University, Ethiopia

May 2003 - March 2005
Seminar on trans-nationality studies, Graduate School of Osaka University

Awards, grants and prizes

Since May 2003
Research fellowship, COE, University of Osaka

1997
The Gedamoch: An Alternative Community? (Together with, Falge), an awarded paper presented to the Foundation of Sociology, Social Administration and Social Anthropological Bulletin, 1997)

1996
The Fukui Award for Fieldwork in post-graduate study, Institute of Ethiopian Study

1996/1997
DAAD Research visit grant for post graduate study, University of Hamburg

1994-1997
DAAD In-country scholarship for Post-graduate Study

Simultaneous PhD Grants

May 1999
LSE (London School of Economics and Political Sciences)

June 1999
DAAD (Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst)

August 1999
University of Kentucky (A grant and Teaching assistantship)

September 1999
Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology

Membership in professional bodies

Friends of Ethiopian Study (Member)

Studentenwerk Sudan (Vice chairman)

Rift Valley Institute (Affiliate)