Workineh Kelbessa
Workineh Kelbessa is a Professor of Philosophy at Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia. He earned a BA in Philosophy from Addis Ababa University, an MA in Development Studies from Erasmus University Rotterdam, and a PhD in Philosophy from the University of Wales, Cardiff, now Cardiff University. Professor Kelbessa’s research interests are wide-ranging and highly interdisciplinary: African philosophy, indigenous knowledge, environmental philosophy, environmental ethics, development ethics, climate ethics, water ethics, globalization, and the philosophy of love and sex. He has published extensively in a wide range of fields. His work tackles significant problems the world faces, especially pressingly in Africa’s nations. His most recent publications include Philosophical Responses to Global Challenges with African Examples (edited with Tenna Dewo, The Council for Research in Values and Philosophy, 2022), “Environmental Injustice and Disposal of Hazardous Waste in Africa” (2023), “The Ethical Responsibility of Developed Countries to Help Finance Adaptation Costs in Poor Developing Countries” (2024), and “African Environmental Philosophy and the Quest for a Sustainable Future” (2024).
Kelbessa has held visiting posts at various institutions including the University of Rostock, Germany (2005), Stellenbosch University, South Africa (2005), the University of Greifswald, Germany (2007-2008), the Technical University of Dresden [TU Dresden], Germany (2011), the Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, Germany (2011, 2015, 2019, 2020, and 2022), and the University of Oxford, United Kingdom (2022). He has travelled widely and visited various universities and has given invited lectures and conference papers in Africa, Europe, America, Asia, and Australia. He is the recipient of grants and fellowships from the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA), the Organisation for Social Science Research in Eastern and Southern Africa (OSSREA), The British Council, UNESCO, The Leche Trust, the Fulbright Foundation, the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, and the Africa Oxford Initiative.
In 2012, he was appointed a member of the World Commission on the Ethics of Scientific Knowledge and Technology (COMEST) by the Director-General of UNESCO, on which he served until 2019. He was a member of the International Panel on Social Progress (IPSP) from 2015 to 2017, and a Research Fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Germany. He is currently a member of the Ethiopian Academy of Sciences and serves as a member of several other international professional associations. Moreover, he was a member of the Editorial Board of Environmental Ethics and has served on the Editorial Boards of various journals including Health Care Analysis, the African Journal of Environmental Ethics and Values, the Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics, and Environmental Values.
While at the University of Oxford, Professor Kelbessa will be focusing on research related to indigenous climate knowledge in Africa and the need for global climate justice. He is hosted in Oxford by Professor Roger Crisp and the Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics at the Faculty of Philosophy.
Professor Kelbessa is the current TORCH/ All Souls Humanities and Identities Visiting Professor 2023/2024.
Professor Kelbessa will be delivering a keynote speech on ‘Indigenous Climate Knowledge in Africa and the Need for Global Climate Justice’ on Friday 24th November 2023. Details of how to register for this event will be published soon.
For more information about Kelbessa’s research and publications, visit his website: Workineh Kelbessa | College of Social Science (aau.edu.et)
