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Moges Yigezu Woube is an Associate Professor of Linguistics at the Department of Linguistics and Philology, Addis Ababa University. After earning his Ph.D. in Comparative-Historical Linguistics from the University of Brussels in 2001, over the past two decades, Woube has actively participated in various research programs, gaining a unique blend of experiences intersecting language, culture, education, and policy formulation.
He has served as the principal investigator of the project titled Beyond Access: Improving the Quality of Early Reading Instructions in Ethiopia and South Sudan, funded by NORAD from 2016 to 2023, where he conducted research on mother tongue education in multilingual settings involving minority languages, teacher training practices in multilingual education, and indigenous educational systems. He has also been involved in the preparation of Amharic textbook for foreign students and co-authored a bilingual Amharic-English school dictionary. Additionally, Woube has contributed as a co-editor to the book Early Childhood Language Education and Literacy Practices in Ethiopia, part of the Routledge Research in Language Education series, released in August 2023. Presently, he is co-editing another significant book project, The Cambridge Handbook on Research Methods for Language in Society, in collaboration with Dave Sayers of the University of Jyväskylä in Finland and Sonal Kulkarni-Joshi, a professor at Deccan College in India.
In academic management, Woube served in various capacities ranging from Department Chair to the position of Director of Graduate Studies at Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia. As the Director of the Graduate Studies, he provided leadership in managing the graduate school and facilitating and overseeing the significant expansion of graduate programs across faculties. Moreover, he served as the training leader and coordinator of Ph.D. Program in Peace, Federalism, and Human Rights from October 2010 to May 2011 at the Institute of Peace and Security Studies of Addis Ababa University, funded by the University of Peace in Costa Rica, a UN-mandated University. On a regional level, Woube worked as the Focal Person for the Research School for Social Sciences and Humanities in Eastern and Southern Africa (RESSESA) from 2011 to 2013 and as a member of the Advisory Technical Committee responsible for managing the program across Eastern African universities. Established by eight countries in East Africa and funded by OSSREA (Organization for Social Science Research in Eastern and Southern Africa), RESSESA aimed to enhance research capacity in the region. In this capacity, Woube was pivotal in planning and coordinating Research Methodology courses for Ph.D. students across the region.
Woube’s research primarily spans two broad disciplinary areas: socio-cultural linguistics and educational linguistics, including literacies. In socio-cultural linguistics, his work delves into language policy and planning, linguistic landscapes, language education policies concerning mother tongue education and early childhood education. Within the realm of educational linguistics, Woube’s interests extend to early reading instructions and related areas.