Yohannes Gedamu

Dr. Yohannes Gedamu is a senior lecturer of political science in the Political Science and International Studies Department in Georgia Gwinnett College’s School of Liberal Arts. Gedamu joined GGC in 2017 as lecturer of political science.

Gedamu completed his BA and MA degrees at Georgia State University, where he also received his Ph.D. in political science in 2017, with special focus on international politics and comparative politics. His dissertation is titled "Ethnic Federalism and Authoritarian Survival in Ethiopia."

Gedamu's research interests include federalism studies, cross border societies and politics of development, democratization, authoritarian survival, human rights, and topics in memory politics. Gedamu is also working on research on policy matters related to cybersecurity with a focus on challenges that developing countries are facing on the topic.

Gedamu's teaching interests range from courses in comparative politics (examples include African Politics, Politics of Developing Nations, Politics of the Middle East and North Africa, and Politics of Economic Development) to international politics (examples include Introduction to International Politics, U.S. Foreign Policy, International Political Economy, International Institutions and Organizations and Politics of War and Peace). Moreover, Gedamu also teaches courses in American government where he brings an international perspective in the discussion of most of the topics. Moreover, Gedamu teaches courses such as United States Security Studies, where he covers topics like U.S. national security interests across eras, U.S. interests across many strategic regions in the world, and overall foreign policy approaches and goals and tools used to achieve such goals.

As a public scholar, Gedamu has also contributed opinion pieces, explainers, and analysis for leading medias such as the Washington Post, New York Times, Slate, NPR, BBC, TRT-World, The Conversation, Yahoo News and the Daily Sabah, and he frequently writes for Al Jazeera opinion among others. In his public scholarship activities, Gedamu mostly writes on the politics of Ethiopia and from time to time and shares commentaries on the politics of the Horn of African region.

• Doctorate – political science, comparative politics and international politics – Georgia State University
• Master's – political science – Georgia State University
• Bachelor's – political science – Georgia State University

Research Contributions

Gedamu, Yohannes. The Politics of Contemporary Ethiopia: Ethnic Federalism and Authoritarian Survival. Routledge Publishing, London, UK. Published in July 2021.

Peer Reviewed Articles

Gedamu, Yohannes. "Transitional Justice and Memory Politics in Contemporary Ethiopia." Interdisciplinary Political Studies 6.1 (2020): 139-166.

Gedamu, Yohannes. Ethiopia’s Survivalist EPRDF Coalition and Recent Political Changes: Any Hope for Democracy? International Journal of Ethiopian Studies, 2018 Special Issue. Tsehai Publishers. June 2019.

Lewkowicz, M. A., Gedamu, Y., Budryte, D., & Boykin, S. A. "Open Educational Resources and Student Engagement: The Use of In-Class Exercises to Enhance OERs in Introductory Political Science Classes." Open Educational Resources (OER) Pedagogy and Practices (pp. 187-209). 2020. IGI Global.

Lewkowicz, Michael; Budryte, Dovile; Boykin, Scott; Young, Laura; and Gedamu, Yohannes. "Classroom Activities for OpenStax American Government" (2019). Political Science Ancillary Materials. 2.

Gedamu, Yohannes. “Ethiopia-Eritrea Relations: Background, War, Stalemate and Reconciliation.” Encyclopedia of African Politics, Editor: Dr. Shadrack W. Nasong’o, Rhodes College, Routledge, (forthcoming).