Mahder Takele Teshome

Born and raised in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Mahder is pursuing a PhD in anthropology. She completed her undergraduate degree at New York University Shanghai, where she crafted a self-designed honors major called religion and language and minored in Hebrew and Judaic studies. Mahder is interested in the cultural overlaps between Africa and the Middle East as demonstrated through language, religion, and tradition. She aims to use her study of Afro-Palestinians’ integration, despite racial disparity, as a model for understanding and influencing the segregated experiences of Africans in other Middle Eastern countries. As a professor of anthropology, she will aspire to encourage more Africans to engage in the social sciences and humanities. Mahder has conducted independent research projects on personal names across Ethiopian Christians, Muslims, and Jews in Ethiopia and Israel. She has been teaching Amharic literacy across three continents since 2020.