Dr. Assefa Mehretu
KALAMAZOO, Mich.—Dr. Assefa Mehretu, a professor of geography at Michigan State University since 1977, will speak on “Partners for Progress and Modernization: American-Ethiopian Relations” at 3 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 26, 2011, in Room 2028 of Brown Hall on the campus of Western Michigan University.
About Dr. Assefa Mehretu
Originally from Ethiopia, Dr. Assefa Mehretu has taught and conducted research in Ethiopia, Burkina Faso, Guinea Bissau and Zimbabwe in collaboration with the World Bank and as a consultant for the U.S. Agency for International Development. His research interests include African development, regional development and theories and patterns of socioeconomic marginalization in the U.S. with particular reference to Michigan.
In addition to teaching at MSU, Mehretu has served as associate director of the university’s African Studies Center and as director since 1992 of the Rome Social Science Program in Italy.
He is the recipient of research fellowships from the Ford Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Fulbright Senior Scholar Award, and various MSU grants to support fieldwork in Ethiopia and Zimbabwe.
Mehretu has taught courses in world geography, regional development, economic geography, location theory and integrative studies in social science. He has published books, chapters, journal articles and segments for various encyclopedias.
Mehretu's lecture is being hosted by the WMU Center for African Development Policy Research and co-sponsored by WMU's Light Center for Chinese Studies; the departments of Anthropology, Economics, Foreign Languages, Geography, History, Political Science and Sociology; Office of Diversity and Inclusion; Center for the Humanities; and Haenicke Institute for Global Education.
For more information, contact Dr. Sisay Asefa, director of WMU's Center for African Development Policy Research, at sisay.asefa@wmich.edu or (269) 387-5556.
Event flier