Semeneh Ayalew Asfaw holds a Ph.D. in Political Studies from the University of Cape Town. His dissertation, “The Young and the Urban in Addis Ababa: Towards a Popular History of the 1974 Ethiopian Revolution, c. 1950s–1974,” explores the connections among sociocultural processes, subject formation, and the Ethiopian Revolution. Asfaw’s research and publications cover social and cultural history, political consciousness, revolutionary terminology, youth subject formation, city-making, and urbanism in twentieth-century Ethiopia.
As a 2022 recipient of the Fatema Mernissi Postdoctoral Fellowship in Social and Cultural Studies at The Africa Institute, Asfaw furthered his research on the relationship between cultural processes and subject formation. By examining the social and cultural formation of young people in everyday life in Addis Ababa between the 1950s and 1974 and drawing on archives, including musical and literary materials previously overlooked in studies of political militancy, his project sought to reframe accounts of the Ethiopian Revolution beyond the conventional focus on student activism.
At the time of his fellowship, Asfaw was affiliated with the Institute of Ethiopian Studies at Addis Ababa University as a Lecturer and Researcher. Beyond academia, he has contributed opinion pieces on Ethiopian politics and history to popular newspapers and participated in radio and television programs.
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