Dr. Kiya Gezahegne

Kiya Gezahegne was a guest from May until June 2023. She is an assistant professor based at Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia. She has been involved in ethnographic research on a range of migration related areas, mainly in Ethiopia and Sudan. Her doctoral thesis focused on migration across the Ethiopia-Sudan border where she investigated religious identity and construction as part of the ‘Borderland Dynamics in East Africa’ project coordinated by the University of Bergen. In her other projects, she studied the experiences of Ethiopian migrants to and from the Middle East, migration management and livelihoods at the Ethiopia Sudan border, interlinkages between migration and poverty in Ethiopia as well as understanding migration and the labour market in Addis Ababa among other. Her current research looks into the impact of external policies and approaches in migration management in Ethiopia and the horn. Her research interests include international migration, refugee studies, gender policy, religious identity, borderland conflict, marginalization and slavery in the contemporary world, and adolescent wellbeing.