Bena Habtamu

Bena is a first-year PhD student in the Department of Anthropology whose research is interested broadly in East African popular media and cultures. At the moment, Bena is interested in a new wave of record labels based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, their hopes to broaden the Ethiopian music industry’s audience internationally, and what their endeavors can reveal about collective memory, nostalgia, language and translation, generation, diaspora relations with their home countries, and more. 

Prior to beginning her PhD at USC, Bena studied anthropology and African studies at Stanford. In her free time, she enjoys reuniting with friends and family, creative writing, receiving new music recommendations, long car rides, and going to the movie theater.  

• BA Stanford University