Professor Bahru Zewde is a distinguished historian of Ethiopia and Africa. He received his B.A. with distinction from the Haile Selassie I University (1970) and his PhD from the University of London (1976). He has taught at the Addis Ababa University (Ethiopia), University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign (USA), Hamburg University (Germany), and has served as director of the Institute of Ethiopia Studies at Addis Ababa University, editor of the Journal of Ethiopian Studies, the Eastern Africa Social Science Research Review, and Africa Review of Books and as member of the International Advisory Board of the Journal of African History, president of the Association of Ethiopian Historians, resident vice-president of the Organization for Social Science Research in Eastern and Southern Africa (OSSREA), and first vice-president of the Association of African Historians. Currently, he serves as the executive director of the Forum for Social Studies (Ethiopia) and a board member of Trust Africa.

He authored widely acclaimed books (including A History of Modern Ethiopia 1855-1991 (2001) and Pioneers of Change in Ethiopia: The Reforming Intellectuals of the Early Twentieth Century (2002), edited a book entitled Between the Jaws of Hyenas: A Diplomatic History of Ethiopia 1876-1896 (2002), co-edited a book (Ethiopia: The Challenge of Democracy from Below (2002), and compiled A Short History of Ethiopia and the Horn (1998). He is also the author of more than 30 articles and book chapters.

Professor Bahru has received numerous awards and fellowships including the British Council Scholarship, British Academy Fellowship, a French Government research grant, and Japan Foundation fellowship. He was USIA/NEH visiting scholar at Boston University and visiting fellow at St. Cross College and St. Anthony’s College, Oxford University. He is also the recipient of the Golden Jubilee Award for “diligence, exemplary conduct and outstanding contribution” from Addis Ababa University.