Netsanet Gebremichael holds a Ph.D. in Interdisciplinary Social Studies from Makerere Institute of Social Research, Makerere University Uganda(2019). She is an Assistant professor and researcher at the Addis Ababa University, Institute of Ethiopian Studies. Since October 2021, Netsanet is also a Fatima Mernissi Post-Doctoral Fellow at The Africa Institute in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates. From April 2010 until November 2012, Netsanet was the Director of the Addis Ababa University Gender Office during her tenure she has initiated several projects among them, she initiatedand institutionalized what is called a Gender resourcecenter IT lab and a library for disadvantaged students.
Netsanet has been conducting several oral history projects as part of her academic research. She focuses mainly on memory, archival studies, historical and cultural documentation practices. She recently completed the first phase of a documentation on oral recollections of the 1977 Famine in Ethiopia as experienced by women. Netsanet has also compiled a monograph based on a broad oral history study of inter-generational perspectives vis-à- vis Emperor Hailessilassie’s era. In addition, her works include documentation on Women in the Ethiopian Student Movement (1950-78)as the recipient of the Global Research Network Grantmanaged by SOAS University of London (2019- 2021)The research outcome led to an archival exhibition entitled Kibibilosh which Netsanet curated at the Modern Art Museum, Gebre Kristos Desta Center in Addis Ababa (7 May – 28 July 2021).
Netsanet’s published academic articles include “Travel Writing as an Empirical Mode of Knowing: A Methodological Critique of James Bruce’s Travels and Adventures in Abyssinia” in MISR Review, 2019. “Ambivalent Memories of Imperial legacies: Asmara as ‘Beautiful' and ‘Segregationist' from Ethiopia”, Journal of Cultural Studies, 2020, and “PPPs in Ethiopia: The New Frontier. In Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era.” 2021 (turned into also a podcast and an animation film.) She has a forthcoming essay on Oral Memories of the 1977 Famine in Ethiopia in TransitionJuly 2022 Edition.
Netsanet’s Ph.D. studies consisted of the documentation of the oral memories of people who lived in Asmara between 1950 and 1975. She is currently working on a book manuscript entitled Memory in times of Ruptures: Reminiscing Asmara from Ethiopia based on her Ph.D.dissertation. Netsanet is also simultaneously preparingthe monograph for Women in the Ethiopian Student Movement (1950-1978).