Format: Zoom Webinar
Date: Friday, 30 January 2026
Time:13:30 Cambridge time | 15:30 EAT
The Ethiopian Women Researchers Network (EWNET) will host an online scholarly webinar examining how Ethiopia has been written into global knowledge, and how Ethiopian thinkers and rulers have, in turn, written the world from Ethiopia.
The presentation, tentatively titled ‘Writing Ethiopia into the World and Writing the World from Ethiopia’, reflects on two interconnected themes. First, it explores the role of foreign scholars in shaping global understandings of Ethiopia, including the strengths and limitations of external perspectives compared with those of Ethiopian scholars. Second, it considers how Ethiopian intellectuals and political leaders have historically looked outward, engaging with ideas and models beyond Ethiopia to shape trajectories of modernization.
Presenter
Christopher Clapham (Ph.D.)
Professor Emeritus of Politics and International Relations, University of Cambridge
Christopher Clapham first visited Ethiopia in 1962, and completed his doctorate at Oxford University on Ethiopian government under Emperor Haile Selassie in 1966, before teaching in the Law School of what was then HS1U. His books include Haile-Selassie’s Government (1969), Transformation and Continuity in Revolutionary Ethiopia (1988), and The Horn of Africa: State Formation and Decay (2017), as well as Africa and the International System: the Politics of State Survival (1996) and African Guerrillas (1998). He was President of the African Studies Association of the UK (1992-94) and editor of The Journal of Modern African Studies (1997-2012). Now retired, he is based at the Centre of African Studies, Cambridge University.
Moderator
Dr Asnake Kefale (Ph.D.)
Associate Professor, Department of Political Science and International Relations, Addis Ababa University
Asnake Kefale is an associate professor of Political Science at Addis Ababa University. He holds PhD in Political Science from the University of Leiden in the Netherlands. His research focuses on federalism, conflict management, political economy, and migration. Dr. Kefale has several publications on issues of politics and migration. He co-edited, Youth on the Move Views from Below on Ethiopian International Migration (Hurst, 2021). Recent publications include among others: Asnake Kefale, Brekke JP, Brochmann G. The power switch in bilateral return migration management: the case of Norway and Ethiopia. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies (2025); Yonas Tariku and Asnake Kefale. “Building a National Army: The Paradoxes of Civil–Military Relations in Ethiopia” Armed Forces & Society (2024) and Asnake Kefale, ‘Political Changes, Constitutional Identities and Disruptions in Contemporary Ethiopia’ in Constitutional Identity and Constitutionalism in Africa (Oxford University Press, 2024)
The Ethiopian Women Researchers Network (EWNET) is an initiative of the Rift Valley Institute’s Peace Research Facility (PRF), funded by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office. EWNET provides a collaborative platform for Ethiopian women researchers in the social sciences and humanities, with a focus on peace and conflict studies.
The network aims to strengthen the participation and visibility of Ethiopian women in research, publication and policy dialogue. It brings together researchers from diverse disciplines, regions and social backgrounds to foster collaboration, share knowledge and contribute to more inclusive and evidence-based approaches to peacebuilding in Ethiopia.
