Mahlet Alemu Gebrehiwot

My name is Mahlet Alemu Gebrehiwot, a PhD student in the Department of Anthropology at Mekelle University, Tigray, Ethiopia, and currently a research fellow at the Frobenius Institute, Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main, Germany. I am pursuing my doctoral research within the ECLIPSE program (funded by NIHR) under the supervision of Professor Lisa Dikomitis (Principal Investigator of ECLIPSE) and Prof. Dr. David James Narendra Bondla. My study focuses on the Local knowledge, perception and Health-care Seeking practices surrounding cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) in Tigray, Ethiopia.  

I hold a BA (2015) and MA (2017) in Anthropology from Mekelle University. Since then, I have been teaching undergraduate students and conducting research in areas including youth sexual and reproductive health, refugees, internally displaced people, and gender-based violence, work that has kept me closely engaged with the lived experiences of communities. 

Through my doctoral research, I conducted extensive ethnographic fieldwork, which deepened my understanding of how people perceive, explain, and narrate illness, health, and disease within their cultural perspective. This experience taught me the importance of respecting local epistemologies and demonstrated how health behavior change is most effective when rooted in community engagement. My research has reinforced my commitment to exploring the social and cultural dimensions of illness, including how it is described, interpreted, and managed locally.

I believe my research interests strongly align with the objectives of CHaI, as I am deeply passionate about the study of grassroots knowledge production and the ways in which cultural understandings shape health practices. I look forward to contributing to and learning from the interdisciplinary collaborations within the CHaI team, while further strengthening my academic and research capacities.

Email: mahletay.yared56@gmail.com

Affiliation: Mekelle University, Tigray, Ethiopia