Gerawork Teferra Gizaw

Academic Mentor: Abosede George, associate professor of History and Africana Studies, Barnard

Research Topic: Examining Present Human Movement Through an Evolutionary Perspective

Country: Ethiopia

Columbia Global Center: Nairobi

Gerawork Teferra Gizaw holds a master's degree in development economics, a bachelor's degree in conservation, and diplomas in law and business information systems. He has collected oral histories for Princeton University’s Global History Lab and won the 2024 Voltaire Prize for his contributions to social dialogue, international understanding, and tolerance. He has also worked as an academic coach, tutor, and learning facilitator for the Sustainable Development Program at Jesuit Worldwide Learning in Kakuma refugee camp.

Gerawork holds honorary research fellow status in the Faculty of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences at the University of Exeter. His past research areas include oral history, refugee life, education, hope, and hospitality. He is interested in research that involves historical investigations and systemic thinking related to human relationships, institutions, mobility, humanitarianism, education, business, environment, and development. As an enthusiastic wonderer, he is motivated by illuminating experiential reality that is not circumscribed by specific and orthodox disciplinary schools of thought. His current research project focuses on exploring the evolution of human mobility and probing its implications for present-day laws and protocols related to “undesirable” forms of mobility.