Board member / Program Director of Gada Education.
Teferi Nigussie Tafa (PhD) is OLLAA’s Program Director of Gada Education. He is an Assistant Professor at University of Northwestern, Minnesota. He was a visiting Professor at Norwich University from 2017-2019. Before he joined Norwich, he was a lecturer at Addis Ababa University and Ambo University. He has got his PhD from Addis Ababa University in Literature, MMA in Human Rights from Curtin University, Australia, and studying Media at New York University now. He has also taken courses from Harvard University and Penn University. Teferi is a prominent Oromo novelist, scholar, and movie maker. In addition to publishing the first (and so far only) scholarly analysis of Oromo-language novels and Oromo films he has also published several of his own novels in the Oromo and English languages, including the Award winning ‘Jaalala Dhuga’, by Macmillan Publishers in London, ‘The agony of congested heart’ by Akashic publisher and produced Qondalticha, a satire film. His research interests range from social identity, indigenous studies, nationalism, literature, and film studies. In addition to production of Oromo literature and films he was an instrumental for the inscription of Gada as Intangible Human Heritage by UNSCO in 2016 and formation of Oromo Gada Council in 2014. He was also founder and president of Oromo writers Association from 2015-2017.