Bisrat is in his third year of PhD candidacy in political science at Centre for Citizenship, Civil Society and Rule of Law, University of Aberdeen.
He holds two MA degrees: one in international development and social change from Clark University (USA) and another in Regional and Local Development Studies from Addis Ababa University (Ethiopia). He also holds a BA in organisational management from International Leadership Institute and a BTh (bachelor of theology) in theology/community development from Evangelical Theological College (Ethiopia).
In a professional career of over 10 years between Ethiopia and the USA, Bisrat has been engaged in teaching, training, consulting, coordinating development projects and managing academic programmes.
Some of the university level courses he thought include:
- Africa: Sustainable Development for All? (tutoring at University of Aberdeen)
- Community Development Practicum (postgraduate programme)
- Perspectives on Poverty and Development
- Development Economics
- Special Topics on Community Development: HIV/AIDS, Environment and Gender
- Designing and Managing Community Development Projects
- Natural Resource Management
- Project Designing, Risk Analysis, Budgeting and Scheduling
- Project Monitoring and Evaluation
- Research Methods for Business Management
- Introduction to Business Management
- Business Communications
Academic research projects undertaken:
- How Endogeneity Matters in Framing Legalization: A Case Study of Urban Self Help Groups in Ethiopia (master’s thesis)
- Agricultural Foreign Direct Investment and the Indigenous’ Entitlement to Land Use: The Case of Abobo Woreda in Gambella, Ethiopia (master’s thesis)
- Reward Types and their Preference by Employees: A Comparative Study of Rewards in For-Profit and Not-for-Profit Organisations (senior thesis)
Bisrat’s ongoing PhD research is titled Intersection of Advocacy and Governmental Practices under Political Transformation: A Case Study of Civil Organisings in Addis Ababa. Through his research, he is focusing on analysing how civil society’s advocacy and the government’s operations, as distinct but also overlapping fields of practices, have influenced one another under a process of political transformations since 2005 in Ethiopia. He is currently wrapping up his fieldwork in Addis Ababa and looking forward to the analysis and write-up stage of his dissertation.
Supervisors: Prof. Pamela Abbott, Dr. Andrea Teti, and Prof. Claire Wallace
Research Interests
- Society, state, government and political actors
- Social movements
- Theories of practices
- Political transformations and transitions
- Sociology of the local
- Sociology of religion
- Identity and conflict