Sisay Megersa Dirirsa

My research interests include 'modern'/contemporary Ethiopian history and historiography, 'modern'/contemporary African history and historiography, Afropessimism and Afrofuturism/African futurism, conceptual and intellectual history, critical gender and race studies, deconstruction, postcoloniality/decoloniality.

Multifaceted Lecturer with 10 + years of expertise in adapting presentations to reach students of diverse backgrounds. Expert in leveraging in-depth knowledge and experience in African and Black studiesto provide relevant information and first-hand experiences. Known for great personable demeanor and strong work ethic.

• 08/2021-01/2022, Bielefeld Young Researchers Fund (BYRF): "Special Funding Line 'Corona' 2021"
• 04/2021-06/2021, Bielefeld University's Welcome Center Scholarship: DAAD/STIBET
• 04/2017-03/2020, BGHS Doctoral Position, Promoted by German Initiative for Excellence
• 04/2016-07/2016, BGHS Start-up Scholarships, Promoted by German Initiative for Excellence
• 2011-2013, Erasmus Mundus Scholarship
• 04/2010-05/2010, VLIR-OUS Scholarship

• 31/01/2024, The Ethiopian Student Movement during the Dawn of the Anti-colonial Historical Epoch: The Long Sixties as a Global-Local Moment of Historicity, Bimat Africa/Africa Forum, Tel Aviv, Israel
• 23/01/2024, The Ethiopian Student Movement against the Backdrop of the Anti-Colonial Epochal Upheaval: The Long Sixties as a Global-Local Moment of Historicity, Tuesday Talks of the Centre for Transcultural Studies, Erfurt, Germany
• 07/2023, Problematizing (Global) History from the vantage point of Radical Alterity: Towards a Pluriverse Logic of History, 2023 TEMA+ Milestone Conference on European Territories: Identity, Heritage, and Development, Budapest, Hungary
• 05/2023, The Ambivalence of Global History and the Deficit of the "Post-Colonial": Is a Pluriversal History Possible?, Worlds Apart? Futures of Global Histories, Wien, Austria
• 06/2022, The Postcolonial ConditionAn Inherent Enigma: Itəyoṕəya'winətə (Being Ethiopian) versus Oromumma (Being Oromo) as a case study, Network of Oromo Studies 6th Online Annual Conference
• 24/06/2022, The Postcolonial ConditionAn Inherent Enigma, Colloquium of Global and Entangled History, Bielefeld
• 09/2018, The Ethiopian Empire: A Future Past Dialectics, International Conference on the History of Concepts, Málaga, Spain
• 09/2018, Ethiopian empire and its haunting ghost, the national question! What does this mean to Oromo nationalism?, Network of Oromo Studies (NOS) 2nd International Conference
• 06/2018, Decentering a Nation: From a vantage point of the Oromo Polity, Conference by the African Studies Association in Germany, Leipzig, Germany
• 05/2018, The Ethiopian Empire: A Future Past Dialectics, International PhD Student Workshop Exchange Bielefeld / Notre Dame, Bielefeld

• Introduction to History and Historiography
• Africa from Colonialism to Independence, 1850s-1960s
• Change and Continuities in African Historiography since 1960s
• Ancient and Medieval World to 1450
• Survey of European History, 1450-1815
• Survey of European History, 1815-1945
• Contemporary Issues in African History since 1960s
• Global History, 1945-1991
• Socio-Cultural History of Ethiopia
• History of the Nile Basin
• Peoples, Cultures, and Religions of Ethiopia and the Horn
• Modern Ethiopian History, 1855-1974
• Modernity as Coloniality: African, Asian and Latin American postcolonial and de-colonial perspectives