Yihenew Alemu Tesfaye holds a PhD in Applied Anthropology, specialization in Medical Anthropology, from Oregon State University, USA. Since 2019, Yihenew has been working as a visiting Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of Gondar (UoG) and Bahir Dar University (BDU), Ethiopia. From 2022 to 2024, Yihenew worked as Professor of Anthropology in the U.S. Ambassador’s Distinguished Scholars Program (ADSP) in Ethiopia based at BDU and Dire Dawa University (DDU). For the last fifteen years Yihenew has been engaged in several multidisciplinary research projects including bio-cultural and medical anthropology, public health, water satiation and hygiene (WASH), food and water insecurity, community health workers, and inter-communal conflicts in Ethiopia and Kenya. Yihenew co-authored well over twenty-five journal articles and two book chapters. Yihenew’s research interests include anthropology, public health, inter-communal conflicts, implementation science, social determinants of health, maternal and child health, food and water insecurity, community health workers, political economy, political ecology, sub-Saharan Africa (Ethiopia and Kenya) and the USA.
Addiction/drugs/drug policy, Climate-related issues, Coercive population control, Deportees/criminal deportees, Disability, Ethnic discrimination or persecution, Ex-combatant reintegration, Female genital mutilation/circumcision/FGC, Gender-based violence/domestic violence, Healthcare access/health systems capacity, HIV/AIDS, Journalist persecution, Land tenure disputes, Mental illness, Military/police service, Political persecution, Religious discrimination or persecution, Government/state actor persecution, Risk of retaliation, Sexual abuse/assault, Specialized medical services, Torture, Trafficking, Tribal discrimination or persecution, Violence against children/child abuse, Inter-communal conflicts
I have experience working on internally displaced people due to violence and conflicts including war and inter-communal conflicts (ethnic, religious and both).
1. Svea Closser, Marium Sultan, Roosa Tikkanen, Shalini Singh, Arman Majidulla, Kenneth Maes, Sue Gerber, Anat Rosenthal, Daniel Palazuelos, Yihenew Tesfaye, Erin Finley, Roza Abesha, Ann Keeling, Judith Justice. 2023. Breaking the silence on gendered harassment and assault of community health workers: an analysis of ethnographic studies. BMJ Global Health 2023; 8:e011749. doi:10.1136/bmjgh-2023-011749
2. Yihenew Tesfaye, Kenneth Maes, Roza Abesha, Sera Young, Jedidiah S. Snyder, Abebe Gebremariam, and Matthew C. Freeman. 2020. How Do Rural Ethiopians Rate the Severity of Water Insecurity Scale Items? Implications for Water Insecurity Measurement and Interventions. Human Organization 79 (2): 95-106.
3. Closser, Svea, Kenneth Maes, Erick Gong, Neha Sharma, Yihenew Tesfaye, Roza Abesha, Mikayla Hyman, Natalie Meyer, Jeffrey Carpenter. 2020. Political Connections and Psychosocial Wellbeing among Women's Development Army leaders in Rural Amhara, Ethiopia: Towards a holistic understanding of community health workers' socioeconomic status. Social Science and Medicine 266. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2020.113373
4. Closser, Svea, Harriet Napier, Kenneth Maes, Roza Abesha, Hana Gebremariam, Grace Backe, Sarah Fossett, and Yihenew Tesfaye. 2019. Does Volunteer Community Health Work Empower Women? Evidence from Ethiopia’s Women’s Development Army. Health Policy and Planning 34(4): 298-306.
5. Kenneth Maes, Svea Closser, Yihenew Tesfaye, Roza Abesha. 2019. Psychosocial distress among unpaid community health workers in rural Ethiopia: Comparing leaders in Ethiopia's Women's Development Army to their peers. Social Science & Medicine 230: 138–146.
6. Kenneth Maes, Svea Closser, Yihenew Tesfaye, Yasmine Gilbert, Roza Abesha. 2018. Volunteers in Ethiopia's Women's Development Army are more deprived and distressed than their neighbors: Cross-sectional survey data from rural Ethiopia. BMC Public Health 18:258.
7. Edward G.J. Stevenson, Argaw Ambelu, B. A. Caruso, Yihenew Tesfaye, and Matthew Freeman. 2016. Community Water Improvement, Household Water Insecurity, and Women’s Psychological Distress: An Intervention and Control Study in Ethiopia. PLOS ONE | DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0153432.
8. Yihenew Tesfaye and Fasika Gedif. “Religious Conflict in Gondar: Local Perspectives on Polarization and Peace-building”. https://riftvalley.net/publication/religious-conflict-gondar. The Rift Valley Institute, Burghley Yard, 106 Burghley Road, London, NW5 1A, United Kingdom: 2023.
9. Yihenew Tesfaye, Fasika Gedif, Kedir Jemal, and Meseret Asefa. Inter-communal tensions, violence and extremism in the time of a pandemic in Ethiopia (https://www.eip.org/publication/inter-communal-tensions-violence-and-co… ). European Institute of Peace, Rue des Deux Eglises, 25 1000 Brussels, Belgium. Webdesign: ALY. November 2021.
10. Terje Østebø, Jörg Haustein, Fasika Gedif, Muhammad Jemal Kadir, Kedir Jemal, and Yihenew Alemu Tesfaye. 2021. Religion, Ethnicity, and the Charges of Extremism in Ethiopia, (https://www.eip.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Ostebo-et-al-2021-Religi… ). European Institute of Peace, Rue des Deux Eglises, 25 1000 Brussels, Belgium. Webdesign: ALY. January 2021.