Dr. Truphena E. Mukuna - Director

Truphena E. Mukuna is the Executive Director of the Organisation for Social Science Research in Eastern and Southern Africa (OSSREA).  She holds a PhD in Education with specialization in curriculum and instructional technology. She is a Multi-disciplinary social science researcher with extensive, hands-on experience and technical expertise on issues in Education; Research and Capacity Building, leadership and governance, institutional strengthening and Mentoring early career researchers; Disaster Risk Reduction; Climate Change, Social Protection, Gender studies, Resilience analysis, Environmental Sustainable Development, Adolescents and Youth affairs. Dr. Mukuna has technical expertise in linking Research to Policy with experience of working in multi-disciplinary and multi-cultural teams.  She is also a Human Rights advocate with keen interest on social protection and gender issues of the marginalized vulnerable groups of people. Mukuna is presently the co-principal investigator of a 3 year project named Youth Inclusive Mechanisms in Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism in the IGAD Region funded by IDRC. She also sits on the steering committee of the Borderlands Dynamics Project, funded by NORHED. She is the OSSREA coordinator of the Informal Cross-Border Trade in the IGAD Region, funded by SIDA and a member of the project Quartet sitting at Life and Peace Institute. Truphena has conducted research, analyzed and published extensively (see LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/truphena-e-mukuna-phd-98099429

Dr. Fekadu Adugna - Research Lead for the Migration Industries Thematic Area

Dr. Fekadu Adugna Tufa did MA in Social Anthropology at Addis Ababa University and PhD in Social Anthropology at Max-Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Germany. Currently he is an Assistant Professor at Addis Ababa University, College of Social Sciences, Department of Social Anthropology, where he served as head of the Department for more than three years. His research areas of interest are migration, borderland studies, identity studies, conflict and conflict management, land deals, and pastoralism. He published articles in peer-reviewed journals and contributed to edited volumes in the areas of migration, conflict and conflict resolution, land and investment. Dr. Fekadu is also coordinator of “Borderland Dynamics in East Africa Project”, which is a network of the Universities of Khartoum (Sudan), Makerere (Uganda) and Bergen (Norway) funded by NORAD”. He was a 2016 fellow of Social Science Research Council (SSRC), based in New York.  Dr. Fekadu has also been engaging in consultancies on migration, conflict management and impacts of large-scale agricultural investments. Tel. +251912343510

Dr. Tekalign Ayalew - Team Member of the Migration Industries Thematic Area

Dr. Tekalign Ayalew obtained his PhD in Social Anthropology from Stockholm University, Sweden. Currently he is assistant professor of Social Anthropology in the College of Social Sciences at Addis Ababa University and affiliated researcher at the department of Social Anthropology, Stockholm University. His research interests include refugee mobility, diaspora, migration industry, transnationalism, human smuggling, youth, health & wellbeing. He has fieldwork experiences in the Horn of Africa, the Sudan, Italy, Sweden and the UK.  Dr. Tekalign also won grants and engaged in and managed several research projects such as ‘countering violent extremism in Afar’, funded by IAG and USID (2017); the EU Marie Curie grant on ‘Diasporic Construction of Home and Belonging’ (CoHaB), (2012 -2016); ‘Customary Dispute Resolution Mechanisms in Ethiopia’, funded by EACC (2010-2011); ‘civil society organizations and disabilities in Ethiopia’, DFID (2011-2012) and ‘Gender Inequalities, power relations and HIV Aids in Sub-Saharan Africa’, funded by OSSREA (2009). He has published peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters. His recent publications include: Struggle for Mobility: Risk, hope and the community of knowledge in Eritrean and Ethiopian migration pathways towards Sweden, Stockholm University press; Refugee protections from bellow: smuggling in Eritrean and Ethiopian context, ANNALs-SAGE. E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.  

Kiya Gezahegne - Team Member of the Migration Industries Thematic Area 

Kiya Gezahegne is a lecturer and doctoral student at Addis Ababa University where she is a fellow in the NORAD borderland project. She spent more than five years researching and writing on Ethiopian migrants in Overseas Development Institute (ODI) projects. This interest in migration led to her PhD thesis which focuses on migration and mobility across the Ethiopia-Sudan border and religious identity construction. Her research so far has focused on international migration, religious identity, borderland conflict, marginalization and slavery in the contemporary world, and adolescent wellbeing. She did ethnographic fieldwork in different parts of Ethiopia, Sudan and Spain. She is the co-author of “Conception of Gender in Migration to the Middle East: An Anthropological Study of Gendered Patterns of Migration in North Wollo Zone of Amhara Region, Ethiopia”, in EJDR journal. Her most recent publications also include “Tähadiso Movement a Myth or Reality? Inter-Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahdo Church Rivalries”, a review of new religious movement in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church and a paper on persistent notion of slavery in “Living on the Margins in the Rayya Qobbo Highlands: Slave descendants in contemporary north Wollo, Amhara region” (2017). 

Ephrem Zerga Bereka - Team Member of the Migration Industries Thematic Area

Ephrem Zerga Bereka did MA in Social Anthropology at Addis Ababa University. He served as a lecturer, researcher and community service coordinator at Madawalabu University. Currently he is a PhD candidate at Addis Ababa University, College of Social Sciences, Department of Social Anthropology. His research areas of interest are migration and migration development nexus, environment, Conflict, ethnicity, identity and youth employment condition in Ethiopia. He has worked with governmental and non-governmental organization including IOM, CCRDA, CGPP, BDS-CDR and Pathfinder International; in conducting qualitative and quantitative researches including large sized survey, data analysis, and management on issues of cross border migration, youth employment condition and rural-urban migration, immunization and rehabilitation among the repatriated and terminated migrants including into hard to reach areas in Ethiopia.

Adamnesh A. Bogale - Team Leader for the Gender and Generation Thematic Area

Adamnesh A. Bogale has worked as a lecturer at the Addis Ababa University since 2009 and has earned her assistant professorship in 2014. Her educational credentials include LLB in 2003, Masters in regional and local development studies in 2006, and a PhD in Social Work and Social Development in 2014. Her research interest includes internal (particularly youth rural to urban migration dynamics and poverty), international migration (with particular focus on return migration), Law and legal/policy analysis development, women, children, and social protection, etc. She was involved in editorial roles for Journal of International Migration Research papers, policy briefs, and working paper contributions to Migration out of poverty project, University of Sussex. Publications among others include: Adamnesh, A. & Adamek, M. (2015). ‘No place like home: Experiences of an Ethiopian migrant in the host country and as a returnee to the homeland’. African and black Diaspora: An international journal; Adamnesh, A. & Adamek, M. (2015). ‘The return migration experience of Ethiopian women trafficked to Bahrain: ‘...For richer or poorer, let me be on the hands of my people...’. African and black Diaspora: An international journal; Adamnesh, A., Oucho, L., Zeitlyn, B. (2014). ‘Poverty, youth and rural-urban migration in Ethiopia. Migrating out of poverty’: Research program consortium, working paper 17. July 2014. University of Sussex. UK; Marie-Jose Tayah and Adamnesh Atnafu (2016) ‘Promoting and protecting the rights of migrant domestic workers in transit: The case of Ethiopian women migrants’. Research series.  ILO. Geneva, Switzerland.

Alemu Tesfaye - Research Communication and Uptake Officer

Manager for information and Knowledge Management at OSSREA since December 20008. Have several years of experience in research uptake, communication, online learning and knowledge management in the field of social sciences. Got considerable skills in various technologies suitable for research uptake and communication such as content management systems, knowledge management systems, e-learning systems, Infographic development systems and social networks. Interested in multi-disciplinary research and online learning. Currently working as research uptake officer for two projects namely, Youth-Inclusive Mechanisms for Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism in the IGAD Region funded by the IDRC and Migrating out of Poverty Project funded by DIFD. Worked at different capacities for various organisations as a software solutions expert. A graduate in Information Technology with an MBA from Manipal University of India.