Fiori Berhane | Assistant Professor of Anthropology

Academic Focus: I work on African refugees’ political activism in confronting the European migration crisis. I am interested in how those who are disempowered make claims to rights and belonging in hostile environments. Specifically, I work with a group of Eritrean activists in Italy as they confront multiple forms of violence, and in turn, imagine what kinds of future are possible after violence.

Broadly, I look at what kinds of political mobilizations refugees can engage in when the stakes are stacked against them, and how those efforts can create alternative imaginaries of citizenship and belonging.

What are your hobbies? I powerlift with my sister, enjoy time at the beach and watch films.

If you could invite one person to dinner, living or dead, who would you select? What would be on the menu? Angela Davis — we’d probably eat fish.

Read any good books lately? Secolo Nuovo by Fulvia Ferrari, about Italian anarchist witches in San Francisco in the early 20th century.