Michael Woldemariam
Michael Woldemariam
Department of International Relations
154 Bay State Road
Room B2
Boston, Massachusetts 02215
(617) 358-6674
(617) 353-9290 fax
mwoldema@bu.edu
Assistant Professor of International Relations and Political Science. (BA, Beloit College; MA, PhD, Princeton)
Specialization: Comparative Politics, International Security, African Politics, Political Violence and Conflict, Post-Conflict Governance and Institution Building, Development Policy, and Identity Politics.
Michael Woldemariam’s teaching and research interests focus on African politics, particularly the dynamics of armed conflict, the behavior of rebel organizations and self-determination movements, and post-conflict institution building. He has special expertise in the Horn of Africa, and has conducted fieldwork in Ethiopia, Mozambique, Somaliland, South Africa, and India.
His dissertation and book project, titled “Why Rebels Collide: Factionalism and Fragmentation in African Insurgencies” investigates a common feature of civil wars: the fragmentation of rebel organizations into mutually exclusive, competing groups. The project is based on a comprehensive analysis of Ethiopia’s civil wars and original data on patterns of rebel fragmentation across post-colonial Africa.
Woldemariam has been a fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, a Bradley fellow, and a research specialist with the Innovations for Successful Societies program at Princeton University.
Professor Woldemariam teaches the following courses:
Africa in International Politics (IR 351/PO 390)
Government and Politics of Contemporary Africa (IR 534/PO 565)