Alpha Abebe, PhD
Alpha Abebe is currently an Assistant Professor at McMaster University with the Faculty of Humanities, where she teaches courses focused on leadership, cross-cultural literacy, community engagement, critical thinking, inquiry and methods.
She completed her doctorate in International Development at Oxford University in 2016, where she was also affiliated with the Oxford International Migration Institute and Oxford Diasporas Programme.
Some of her research interests include Ethiopian and African diasporas, diaspora engagement in development, generations and identities, and the politics of race and ethnicity. She has spent several years as an international and community development practitioner, and her advocacy, research and professional efforts have been largely devoted to young people from African and racialized communities.
Alpha is also a photographer and uses her art as a tool for community engagement and dialogue. Her images are a reflection of how she sees the world — textured and colourful, with a splash of optimism. Alpha makes use of natural light and lines to bring life to the subjects in her work, whether they be people, landscapes or mundane objects.
Her art, advocacy, and academic work are all informed and strengthened by each other.
She completed her doctorate in International Development at Oxford University in 2016, where she was also affiliated with the Oxford International Migration Institute and Oxford Diasporas Programme.
Some of her research interests include Ethiopian and African diasporas, diaspora engagement in development, generations and identities, and the politics of race and ethnicity. She has spent several years as an international and community development practitioner, and her advocacy, research and professional efforts have been largely devoted to young people from African and racialized communities.
Alpha is also a photographer and uses her art as a tool for community engagement and dialogue. Her images are a reflection of how she sees the world — textured and colourful, with a splash of optimism. Alpha makes use of natural light and lines to bring life to the subjects in her work, whether they be people, landscapes or mundane objects.
Her art, advocacy, and academic work are all informed and strengthened by each other.
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Papers by Alpha Abebe, PhD
Methods: The study employed an asset-based lens to examine how Black communities have engaged in health policy and advocacy in Ontario. In-depth interviews were conducted with eight participants who self-identify as Black, recruited using purposive and intensity sampling to (1) identify information-rich cases, including people who have been at the forefront of high-impact work in this space and (2) participants whose mission and mandates represented diverse approaches and sub-populations.
Results: Our findings suggest that while Black community advocates face systemic and contextual barriers, they also embody deep and multifaceted knowledge, training and experience, which inform the rich ways that they approach advocacy.
However, closer examination of these public engagement practices reveal gaps that call the true depth and breadth of these initiatives into question (particularly as it relates to Black communities) therefore chipping away at their legitimacy and efficacy.
However, the sociopolitical cleavages of our pre-COVID world are still quite visible through this veil of social change and good will. In fact, there is good reason to believe that these societal distinctions will become further entrenched and increasingly divisive in the time of extreme uncertainty, scarcity, and paranoia that we are currently in. Time, experience and research will tell how these dynamics will ultimately unfold. In the meantime, however, it is important that researchers keep an eye to the ground and begin to ask questions about how COVID-19 is being experienced by different communities – particularly racialized and marginalized groups. When we look closely at the Black and African diaspora in North America , we begin to see how the intersections of factors such as race, migration, economics, and structural environment are creating a unique set of challenges that these communities are both confronting and responding to.
With enough time, research, and reflection you can ensure you are making a thoughtful and informed decision. Use this self-assessment tool to help you think through your motivations, personal goals, and career trajectory.
While these trips often involved pleasurable activities such as family gatherings, sightseeing, and trips to resorts, they were also punctuated by jarring encounters with child poverty, inequality, and evidence of poor governance. These made lasting impressions on my respondents, often shaping their imaginations of and future engagements with the country.
the movement of those who are removed from their points of origin and are reinterpreting their relationships to place, home, and self.
Thesis Chapters by Alpha Abebe, PhD
Their initiatives included fundraising events, establishing local NGOs, volunteer missions, and taking professional positions within the Ethiopian development sector, among others. Utilising an interactionist theoretical framework, I unpack YDEO motivations for engaging in Ethiopian development, the nature of the development activities themselves, and the ways in which these experiences have shaped YDEO relationships, identities, and trajectories in life so far.
Engaging in Ethiopian development was rarely expressed as an extension of a pre-existing sense of Ethiopian patriotism; rather, YDEOs used these practices to explore, test, or build a sense of connection to their country of origin. Further, the development framework made it possible for them to forge a relationship that also resonated with their other social identities, and could even be leveraged to further other personal and professional goals. YDEO engagements in Ethiopian development were not simply interventions; they were fundamentally social processes defined by social interactions. In the process of organising fundraising events, volunteering at orphanages, and working on project reports, YDEOs were also building personal connections, gaining social capital, and redefining attitudes towards their families, communities, development, and Ethiopia itself.
This thesis contributes an in-depth and critical analysis of the diaspora/development nexus – a nexus that emerges as a contested space, where people act and are acted upon, where identities are reified and transformed, and where institutions and social structures are both strengthened and challenged. The insights from migrant descendant experiences, such as YDEOs, highlights the ways in which diasporic identities take shape and are imbued with meaning through social practice, and how these practices are connected to broader human psychosocial needs, aspirations, and behaviours.
Historic and contemporary migration flows have sparked interest in the ways that migrant communities simultaneously adapt to their new homes and maintain ties to their homelands. The development of new fields and schools of thought such as Diaspora, Refugee, and Transnationalism Studies, has helped create nuanced and complex understandings of these increasingly salient issues. What has been slower to develop is a critical analysis of how second generation (im)migrants also build their lives, make decisions, create meaning, and form communities in ways that cross, intersect and transverse national borders. In this thesis I embark on this analytical pursuit through an examination of three cultural artefacts produced by young Ethiopian diasporans. Through this exploratory work, I challenge pervasive discourses that dominate migration literature and offer an alternative lens illuminating the ways that young diasporans produce spaces that are their own and find insightful and creative ways to express this lived experience.
Books by Alpha Abebe, PhD
Methods: The study employed an asset-based lens to examine how Black communities have engaged in health policy and advocacy in Ontario. In-depth interviews were conducted with eight participants who self-identify as Black, recruited using purposive and intensity sampling to (1) identify information-rich cases, including people who have been at the forefront of high-impact work in this space and (2) participants whose mission and mandates represented diverse approaches and sub-populations.
Results: Our findings suggest that while Black community advocates face systemic and contextual barriers, they also embody deep and multifaceted knowledge, training and experience, which inform the rich ways that they approach advocacy.
However, closer examination of these public engagement practices reveal gaps that call the true depth and breadth of these initiatives into question (particularly as it relates to Black communities) therefore chipping away at their legitimacy and efficacy.
However, the sociopolitical cleavages of our pre-COVID world are still quite visible through this veil of social change and good will. In fact, there is good reason to believe that these societal distinctions will become further entrenched and increasingly divisive in the time of extreme uncertainty, scarcity, and paranoia that we are currently in. Time, experience and research will tell how these dynamics will ultimately unfold. In the meantime, however, it is important that researchers keep an eye to the ground and begin to ask questions about how COVID-19 is being experienced by different communities – particularly racialized and marginalized groups. When we look closely at the Black and African diaspora in North America , we begin to see how the intersections of factors such as race, migration, economics, and structural environment are creating a unique set of challenges that these communities are both confronting and responding to.
With enough time, research, and reflection you can ensure you are making a thoughtful and informed decision. Use this self-assessment tool to help you think through your motivations, personal goals, and career trajectory.
While these trips often involved pleasurable activities such as family gatherings, sightseeing, and trips to resorts, they were also punctuated by jarring encounters with child poverty, inequality, and evidence of poor governance. These made lasting impressions on my respondents, often shaping their imaginations of and future engagements with the country.
the movement of those who are removed from their points of origin and are reinterpreting their relationships to place, home, and self.
Their initiatives included fundraising events, establishing local NGOs, volunteer missions, and taking professional positions within the Ethiopian development sector, among others. Utilising an interactionist theoretical framework, I unpack YDEO motivations for engaging in Ethiopian development, the nature of the development activities themselves, and the ways in which these experiences have shaped YDEO relationships, identities, and trajectories in life so far.
Engaging in Ethiopian development was rarely expressed as an extension of a pre-existing sense of Ethiopian patriotism; rather, YDEOs used these practices to explore, test, or build a sense of connection to their country of origin. Further, the development framework made it possible for them to forge a relationship that also resonated with their other social identities, and could even be leveraged to further other personal and professional goals. YDEO engagements in Ethiopian development were not simply interventions; they were fundamentally social processes defined by social interactions. In the process of organising fundraising events, volunteering at orphanages, and working on project reports, YDEOs were also building personal connections, gaining social capital, and redefining attitudes towards their families, communities, development, and Ethiopia itself.
This thesis contributes an in-depth and critical analysis of the diaspora/development nexus – a nexus that emerges as a contested space, where people act and are acted upon, where identities are reified and transformed, and where institutions and social structures are both strengthened and challenged. The insights from migrant descendant experiences, such as YDEOs, highlights the ways in which diasporic identities take shape and are imbued with meaning through social practice, and how these practices are connected to broader human psychosocial needs, aspirations, and behaviours.
Historic and contemporary migration flows have sparked interest in the ways that migrant communities simultaneously adapt to their new homes and maintain ties to their homelands. The development of new fields and schools of thought such as Diaspora, Refugee, and Transnationalism Studies, has helped create nuanced and complex understandings of these increasingly salient issues. What has been slower to develop is a critical analysis of how second generation (im)migrants also build their lives, make decisions, create meaning, and form communities in ways that cross, intersect and transverse national borders. In this thesis I embark on this analytical pursuit through an examination of three cultural artefacts produced by young Ethiopian diasporans. Through this exploratory work, I challenge pervasive discourses that dominate migration literature and offer an alternative lens illuminating the ways that young diasporans produce spaces that are their own and find insightful and creative ways to express this lived experience.