Dagmawi Woubshet is a scholar, writer, and translator, working at the intersection of African American, LGBTQIA+, and African studies. Before joining the University of Pennsylvania in 2017 as Edmund J. and Louise W. Kahn Endowed Term Associate Professor of English, Woubshet taught at Cornell University where he was named one of “The 10 Best Professors at Cornell.”
He’s held fellowships at the Institute of Ethiopian Studies at Addis Ababa University; Modern Art Museum in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where he curated Julie Mehretu: The Addis Show (2016); The Africa Institute in Sharjah, UAE (2020-21); and Civitella Ranieri, Italy (2022). Woubshet is the author of The Calendar of Loss: Race, Sexuality, and Mourning in the Early Era of AIDS (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2015), and the co-edited volume Ethiopia: Literature, Art, and Culture, a special issue of Callaloo (2010). His critical and creative writings have appeared in various publications including Transition, NKA: Journal of Contemporary African Art, The Atlantic, and African Lives: An Anthology. He is currently working on three book projects: James Baldwin and the Art of Late-Style; the first English translation of Sebhat Gebre Egziabher’s 1966 Amharic novel, ሰባተኛው መላክ Säbatägnaw Mälak [The Seventh Angel]; and a collection of lyric essays. He has also served as an Associate Editor of Callaloo and currently is on the Editorial Board of Transition.
He received his Ph.D. in the History of American Civilization from Harvard University and his B.A. in Political Science and History from Duke University.