Yodit E. Fitigu
yfitigu@yahoo.com

I am currently in my second year in the MA Public Anthropology program. I received a B.A in Anthropology with a concentration in Africa Area Studies and Gender and development at the University of California, Los Angeles. As part of the Anthropology Honors Research Program at UCLA, I conducted fieldwork collecting life histories among Ethiopian and Eritrean women in Washington DC. This research culminated into a thesis entitled, "Through the Voices of our Mothers: Expressions of Identity and Nationalism Among Tigrayans and Tigrigna-speaking Eritrean Immigrants." The thesis examined the existence of ethnic nationalism in diaspora. It focused on the ways in which cultural identities and nationalist sentiments are invoked and (re)constructed in social interaction.

My geographical interests are in the Horn of Africa and the South Caucasus, particularly Ethiopia, Eritrea and the Republic of Georgia. My research interests include: political change, gender and the processes of displacement in post-socialist states, nationalism and transnationalism in the making of diasporic identities. Through the collection of life histories and documentary video, my current research is on the gendered experience of displacement among internally displaced women in the Republic of Georgia.

Additionally, I am in the process of completing a short ethnographic/documentary film, "Milk and Honey: The Story of an Ethiopian Jewish Family". Set within the larger context of the Ethiopian Jewish exodus, this film explores the personal story of a family's journey of migration, exile, displacement, and the struggle to overcome the politics of identity.