2002-2006

PhD, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. Thesis title: ‘Re-imagining Empire: Ethiopian Political Culture under Yohannis IV (1872-1889)’ (study of Ethiopian political culture based on sources in Ethiopian languages).

1993-1998

BA and Master Degree, African Studies Programme in the Institute of Oriental Studies, University of Warsaw (one degree, Distinction) (programme involved learning two Ethiopian languages, courses linguistic, history and culture of African societies)

2015-2018

Humboldt Research Fellow at Leibiz-Zentrum Moderner Orient
working group Progress: Ideas, Agents, Symbols
             
Curating a digital exhibition for a conference “New Man” in Africa, Asia and the Middle East: Practices, Networks and Mobilization, c. 1910-1960

2017

Workshop and working group participation at the Bayreuth Academy of Advanced African Studies, After Socialism: forgotten  legacies and possible futures 

2013-2015

Research Fellow and co-investigator on a multidisciplinary project in northern Ethiopia, sponsored by the Picker Interdisciplinary Science Institute, Colgate University and National Science Foundation

Project: Does religious management mitigate the socio-ecological drivers of forest change in sacred groves in northern Ethiopia?

Activity: shaping methodology of the project, qualitative data collection, oral history collection.  

2011-2013

Associate Professor, Department of Linguistics and Philology, Addis Ababa University. Teaching, lecturing, course design and assessment of modules in research methods and the history of the Horn of Africa, supervision of BA,MA and PhD students. Organisation of viva committees with international examiners.

2008

British Academy Fellow, field research in Ethiopia: archival work in the newspaper and manuscript sections of the Institute of Ethiopian Studies(IES), Addis Ababa University, and photographic collection, data collection in churches in central Ethiopia (image collection, interviews with priests and local elders).  

2002-2003

PhD candidate, research in Ethiopia: fieldwork involving in-depth inter views with selected individuals and local archives. 

2010-2012

Associate Professor, Department of Linguistics and Philology, Addis Ababa University. Teaching, lecturing, course design and assessment of modules in research methods and the history of the Horn of Africa, supervision of BA,MA and PhD students. Organisation of viva committees with international examiners.

2006-2009

Teaching and student assessment in the School of History, Classics and Archaeology, The University of Edinburgh.
Writing and delivering lectures; class teaching; setting and marking examinations, courses taught:
MSc option: Themes in Social History of Africa
Honour class: The Making of Modern Ethiopia: Indigenous Symbolism, State Ideology and the Invention of Tradition
Lectures and tutorial teaching for  Asia, Africa and Australasia. 

2008

Visiting Lectureship at the History Department, AAU. Course taught ‘Major Themes in the History of Ethiopia and the Horn’, supervision of BA and MA theses, graduate seminar development.          

2005-2006

Lecturer and Course Convenor, Ethiopian Peoples and Cultures full unit course for undergraduates, course design, lectures, seminars and student assessment. Department of the Languages and Cultures of Africa, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.

2003-2005

Class Teacher, The History of Africa from 1800; The Making of Africa (pre-colonial history of Africa), class teaching and student assessment. Department of History, SOAS.

2014

Participation in a workshop on grant preparation at Colgate University U.S. National Science Foundation. Grant Number: 1518501 (Hamilton, July 2014)

2015

Panel organisation: Ethno-ecology, eco-cultural spaces and ethno-landscapes in Ethiopia with Jon Abbink, Dirk Bustorf.

2012-2013

Organisation and funding application for an Academic Writing Workshop at Mekelle University, sponsored by the African Studies Association (ASA UK) and the British Academy.

2011-2012

Academic staff management as Head of Philology Programme Unit, Addis Ababa University organisational and administrative responsibility for the department, directly answerable to the Dean of Studies, convenor of the departmental PhD seminar.

2012

Co-organisation of an inauguration workshop of Heritage and Preservation Centre, University of Debre Marqos, Ethiopia. lecturer: 

2011

Evaluation of PhD scholarship candidates in examination board of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), Germany Embassy in Addis Ababa.

2007

Organisation of an interdisciplinary workshop at the Centre for African Studies, University of Edinburgh, Eating and Drinking in Culture and Politics.

2007

Co-editor, Proceedings of the 16th International Conference of Ethiopian Studies and panel convenor for the History and Archaeology, Trondheim 2007.  

2006

Co-operation with Encyclopaedia Aethiopica(Wiesbaden)project,written contribution to vol. II, III  .

1999

Co-ordinator of Socrates-Erasmus Exchange Programme, Institute of Oriental Studies, University Warsaw (1999). Participation in Admission Committee for African Studies Section, Institute of Oriental Studies, University of Warsaw (1999).

Performing Monarchy: Symbolic Communication in the Making of Modern Ethiopian (being considered by Cambridge University Press). This  is a study of  symbolic politics in the period of the revival of the Ethiopian state.

2006

Re-imagining Empire: Ethiopian political culture under Yohannis IV, 1872-89 PhD thesis

Peer-Reviewed Articles

2018

Orlowska, I., Klepeis, P. ‘Ethiopian Church Forests: a socio-religious conservation model under change’, Journal of Eastern African Studies ( to appear in the next issue) 

2018

Kent, E., Orlowska, I ‘Accidental Environmentalists: The Religiosity of Church Forests in Highlands Ethiopia’, WorldViews: Global Religions, Culture and Ecology vol.22(available open access from April 2018). DOI: 10.1163/15685357-02201101

2017

Cardelus, C., Scull. P., Wassie, A., Woods, C., Klepeis, P., and I. Orlowska  ‘Shadow Conservation and the Persistence of Sacred Forests in Northern Ethiopia’, Biotropica 10 April 2017.DOI:10.1111/btp.12431

2016

Klepeis, P. Orlowska, I, Kent, E., Cardelus, C., Scull, P., Wassie, A. and C. Woods  ‘Ethiopian Church Forests: A Hybrid Model of          Protection’, Human Ecology44:715-730 26 November.
DOI 10.1007/s10745-016- 9868-z http://rdcu.be/m607          

Single-authored

2013

‘Feasting and Political Change: Tafari's Ascent to Power and Early 20th century Geber,’ Annales d’Ethiopie 28, XX, 45-67.

‘Forging a Nation: Ethiopian Millennium Celebration and the Multiethnic State’, Nations and Nationalism vol. 19, 2, (April), 286-316.

‘The Legitimising Project: The Coronation Rite and the Written Word’, Aethiopica: International Journal Ethiopian and Eritrean Studies vol.16, 74-101.

2010

‘Ethiopia and the ‘Theatre-State’ Model: Symbolism and Political Ritual’, Research in Ethiopian Studies: Selected papers (eds.) Harald Aspen, Shiferaw Bekele, Birhanu Teferra (Wiesbaden), pp.52-60.

2009

‘Performance and Ritual in Nineteenth-Century: Ethiopian Political Culture’, Proceedings of the 16th International Conference of Ethiopian Studies, ed. by Svein Ege, Harald Aspen, Birhanu Teferra and Shiferaw Bekele, (Trondheim 2009).

2007

‘The Monarchy of Niguse Negest: Political Compromise and State Ritual. In: Polska, Europa, Afryka. Eds. Nowak, B., Dygo, M.(Pultusk: Akademia Humanstyczna im. Aleksandra Gieysztora), 295-314.

2006

‘Re-imagining Empire: The Coronation Ceremony of Yohannis IV as an Expression of Memory of the Ethiopian Monarchy’, in Rocznik Orientalistyczny, v, LIX, 1, (2006), pp.173-180.  

Mining the Wisdom of Solomon: The Coronation of Yohannis IV and the Re-Invention of Tradition in Late Nineteenth-Century Ethiopia. Proceedings of the XV International Conference of Ethiopian Studies (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag), 313-22. 

2003

‘The Chronicle of Susinyos as an Ethiopian Source for Research on the Jesuit Period in Ethiopia’, Proceedings of the XIV International Conference of Ethiopian Studies (Addis Ababa) 422-434.

2000

 ‘The Chronicle of Susinyos, the Emperor of Ethiopia’, Afryka: Journal of the Polish African Society, 10, 15-23.

1999

‘History of Somalia until 1991’ in J. Mantel-Niecko & M. Zabek (eds.), A History of the Horn of Africa (Warsaw),  285-306.

Selected Talks and Seminar Papers

October 2017

Iconography of Power: Ethiopian ruptures and continuities under three regimes (1930s-to present)  public lecture, Bayreuth University (invited speaker).

30 March 2016

Why do they exist? How did they survive? Sacred groves of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. Multidisciplinary research project. Department of African Languages and Culture, University of Warsaw ( invited speaker).

August 2015

Ethiopian Church Forests: Hubs of social and religious life and pockets of remaining biodiversity, 19th International Conference of Ethiopian Studies, University of Warsaw.

December 2014

‘New Ethiopian Nationalist Visions: symbols, heroes and development projects’, seminar of  Zentrum Moderner Orient, Berlin (invited speaker).

November 2012

‘Interpreting Ethiopian Iconographic Heritage’, International Conference on Museology ‘Development of Museums and Heritage in Africa: Developments, Challenges and Collaboration’, Mekelle University, November 2012.

May 2012

‘Ethiopian Church murals as historical sources’, inauguration workshop of Heritage and Preservation Centre, University of Debre Marqos, Debre Marqos.

April 2011

‘Forging a Nation? Ethiopian Millennium Celebration and the Multiethnic State’,presented at International Conference of the Association for Studies of Ethnicity and Nationalism (ASEN), London School of Economics.

March 2009

‘Swinging Shawls, Bowing, Carrying Stones: the Dynamics of Posture, Gesture and Dress in Ethiopian Political Culture’, Seminar of the History Department, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, March 2009.   

April 2009

‘Symbolic Communication and Political Modernisation in Imperial Ethiopia: from Local Knowledge to Global Interactions’, British Academy PDF Symposium. 

2018

Leibniz Historical Authenticity - fellowship

2017

Fellow of the Bayreuth Academy of Advanced African Studies

2015-2018

Humboldt Research Fellow at Leibniz - Zentrum Moderner Orient       
project title:  Illusions of change: cultural history of progress in Ethiopia

2006-2009

British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Edinburgh, project title: ‘‘From Traditional to Modernity’: Symbolism and Ritual in the Political Culture of the Ethiopian Empire, 1830s to 1930s’.

2003-2004

Marshall Fellowship, Institute of Historical Research, Institute of Advanced Studies, University of London. 

2001-2003

Royal Historical Society, three year PhD bursary.
Research Fellowship, University of London, SOAS.