U.S. and Non-U.S. Scholars

Fulbright New Century Scholars Program
Overview • Previous NCS Programs • NCS Scholar List • NCS Brochure • 2007-2008

Wondimu, Habtamu

• Full Professor
  
• Addis Ababa University
  
• Department of Psychology, College of Education
  
• Ethiopia

Dr. Wondimu is professor of social psychology in the Department of Psychology, College of Education, Addis Ababa University (AAU).  He has been teaching research methods and social, developmental and educational psychology courses to graduate and undergraduate students at the AAU for almost thirty years. He is also an advisor to several graduate students working on their MA theses in the areas of social, developmental and educational psychology. 

Dr. Wondimu has been a consultant on child rights and labor issues, HIV/AIDS, counseling and related social and educational issues in Ethiopia. His broad areas of research  interests include; social problems, education (mainly tertiary level) and human rights issues.

His past positions include; Chairman of Psychology Department, Head of Academic and Research Affairs Department in the former Commission for Higher Education, member of the AAU Senate and various standing committees in 1990s.  He has also been a former chairperson of Ethiopian Psychologists’, and Educational Researchers’ associations, and current Liaison Officer of the Ethiopia Chapter of the Organization for Social Science Research in Eastern and Southern Africa(OSSREA).

Dr. Wondimu is a winner of OSSREA’s Sabbatical Leave Research Grant to prepare a ‘Handbook of Peace and Human Rights Education in Ethiopia’ (to be published by OSSREA in 2007).

Select Publications

• The African brain drain: An escalating challenge to development efforts. Journal of Ethiopian Educational Researchers’ Association, Vol.2, no. 1, 1-17 (2006).
• Gender and regional disparities in opportunities to higher education in Ethiopia: Challenges for the promotion of social justice. The Ethiopian Journal of Higher Education, 1, 2, 1-15 (2004).
• Gender and Good Governance with Reference to Affirmative Action in Higher Education in Ethiopia. Paper Presented at the Forum for Social Studies’ Workshop, AA, in Amharic, 2004.
• Family violence in Addis Ababa: Challenges of reconciling culture and human rights in Ethiopia.  Paper presented at the 15th International Conference of Ethiopian Studies.  Hamburg, Germany (2003).
• Higher education in Ethiopia, In Damtew Teferra & P. Altbach (Eds.),   African Higher Education: An International Reference Handbook. Bloomington: Indiana University Press (2003.

Problems of Access and Equity in Higher Education: A Comparative Perspective on Cultural Issues

Many social groups, such as females, ethnic minorities, persons with disabilities, rural residents, and the pastoralists are underrepresented at various educational levels, particularly in secondary and higher education levels in Ethiopia. For the past several years, I have been doing research on various issues relating to social values, child rearing practices, gender and regional disparities in opportunities to higher education and cross-cultural issues, cultural challenges in respect to human rights, and educational wastage at various levels of education. I just completed a Handbook titled “Peace and Human Rights Education in Ethiopia.” I am presently conducting studies concerning the state of governance, institutional autonomy and academic freedom in respect to the Ethiopian higher education institutions.