Hamdesa Tuso

General

Dr. Hamdesa Tuso was born and raised in Oromia, in the Ethiopian Empire. During his years in high school, he distinguished himself as a leader in activism for social change and justice, community development and human rights, against the injustices perpetrated by the regime of Emperor Haile Sellassie against the landless peasants in the newly conquered and incorporated territories in the Empire in the 19 th and 2oth centuries.

Dr. Tuso’s interest in higher education took him to Australia and North America. He attended Avondale College, NSW, Australia, receiving a B.A. He later pursued his graduate education at Andrews University, Berrein Springs, Michigan where he received his M. A. and Michigan State University where he obtained his Ph.D. (1981).

From 1982 to 1990 Dr. Tuso served George Mason University (GMU), Fairfax, Virginia as the Head International Student Advisor (five years) and as the Director of Office International Student Services (three years).

During the last two decades, Dr. Tuso has been involved in a broad range of activities relating to social change and conflicts in cross-cultural settings. He participated in the evolution of five different organizations ranging from refugee support units to a scholarly society in the Horn of Africa. He is the founder of the Oromo Studies Association (OSA). He served on the Board of Directors of the National Forum on Immigration, Refugees, Citizenship (an umbrella organizations of more than 120 affiliated organizations coordinating programs and policies in immigration, refugees, resettlement, and the needs of new citizens). More recently, Dr. Tuso formed the Shanachaa Jaarsummaa (five members of peacemaking body), which he currently chairs, to resolve the 10 year-old conflict within the leadership of the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF)

Dr. Tuso served as a Fellow at the Center for Development Policy in Washington D.C. (1982-1984); Consultant, Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies at Connard Grebel college, University of Waterloo (Canada) pertaining to the conflicts in the Horn of Africa (1986-1991); Fellow and Adjunct Professor, Institute for Conflict Analysis & Resolution, George Mason University (1990-93); and Associate Editor of the Horn of Africa Journal.
As a person, who has been interested in helping to resolve the conflict in the Horn of Africa, one is one of scholars, who attended, by invitation, the London Peace Conference of May 1991, to chart the political system in post-Deruge Ethiopia .

Between Spring 1994 and Fall 1997, Dr. Tuso taught as Assistant Professor at the Institute for Conflict Analysis & Resolution of George Mason University. In May 1998, he joined the faculty of the Department of Conflict Resolution at Antioch University as an Associate Professor. He was the Visiting Scholar at the Peace Studies Program of Antioch College during the 1998-99 academic year. In August, 2000, he joined the faculty of the Department of Conflict Analysis & Resolution at Nova Southeastern University, Fort Lauderdale, Florida. In 2004, he was promoted to the rank of Associate Professor in the above referenced department.

During the 2002-2003 year, he was awarded position of the Senior Fellow at Bartos Institute for Conflict Resolution, the United World College of the American West, Montezuma, New Mexico. During the Spring of 2005, he was selected as the Distinguished Visiting Esau Professor by the faculty of Meno Simons College, and affiliate of University of Winnipeg. He will join the faculty of Meno Simons College in this capacity during the 2006-2007 academic year.

Recent Publications

“Oromo Nationalism and the U. S. Foreign Policy toward Ethiopia” in Seyoum Hesso, ed, Ethiopia: Faintly Heard Voices and Arrested Development . . . Critical Essays onUnderdevelopment, Democracy, and Self-Determination. (Forth Coming).

“Constructed On A Sand Foundation: The Crisis of U. S. Foreign Policy Toward the Horn of Africa During the Post Cold War Era: A Critical Review” (Part II). Horn of Africa: An Independent Journal, Vol. XVIII, No. 1 (Spring 2000), pp. 26-59.

“Indigenous Processes of Conflict Resolution in Oromo Society” in I. William Zartman. ed., Traditional Cures for‘Modern Medicine’ Lynne Rienner Publishers (2000).

“Constructed On A Sand Foundation: The Crisis of U. S. Foreign Policy Toward the Horn of Africa During the Post Cold War Era: A Critical Review” (Part I), Horn ofAfrica: An Journal, Vol. XVII, No. 1-4 (Dec. 1999), pp. 19-31

“The Role of Women in Conflict Resolution: Perspectives from an Indigenous System” Leadership Journal (Women), Vol. 2, No. 2 (Spring 1998), PP. 29-43.

“ Ethiopia: New Political Order, Ethnic Conflict in the Post Cold War Era” Africa ( Rome), Vol. LII, NO. 3 (Fall 1997), pp. 343-364.

“The Demise of the Mythical Ethiopia,” The Oromo Commentary, Vol. 1, No. 2 & 3 (1991), pp. 20-24.