gemechu@yorku.ca
Gemechu is National Lead, Research at the Ase Community Foundation for Black People with Disabilities and an Adjunct Assistant Professor at McMaster University. A social anthropologist by training, he specializes in refugee and forced migration studies, labour mobility pathways, Black diasporic communities, and immigrant settlement and integration. His research centrally investigates the intersections of disability, racialization, and well-being, with focused expertise on the lived experiences of Black people with disabilities and Black mental health. He holds a PhD in Social Anthropology from the University of Bayreuth, where he was awarded the City of Bayreuth Prize for Best Doctoral Thesis. Dr. Abeshu has secured over $650,000 in research funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), the German Research Foundation (DFG), 91亚色, and community partners. A seasoned practitioner of community-based participatory research (CBPR), his work bridges qualitative, community-driven methodologies with rigorous, policy-relevant analysis. He has authored peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters, monographs, and policy reports, and has taught undergraduate courses in sociology, migration, anthropology, and research methods. Dr. Abeshu also contributes to academic service as a peer reviewer, editor, advisory board member, and co-founder of scholarly networks focused on forced displacement and diaspora studies
Keywords: Black diaspora, labour mobility, refugee and immigration integration, ethnography, exiled and scholars at risk, forced displacement