Dr. Ola Osman

Biography

Ola Osman is an Assistant Professor in African Politics at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of Trinity Hall. She has extensive experience as a senior gender consultant for the United Nations World Food Programme. Her academic journey includes a Ph.D. in Politics and International Studies from the University of Cambridge, where she was a Gates Cambridge Scholar, and a Master’s degree in Women’s Studies from the University of Oxford, supported by the Clarendon Scholarship and the Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud Scholarship. Osman's interdisciplinary research reframes the concept of 'ethnic' wars in Africa by situating them within the broader context of the historical Atlantic slavery. Her current research focuses on social inclusion, conflict, climate change, and food security in Ethiopia's Afar Region. She is involved with the Advisory Board of the Collective Healing Initiative and has contributed to UNESCO’s Routes Enslaved Peoples Project. Her teaching includes undergraduate courses such as Comparative Politics and Politics of Africa, as well as postgraduate instruction in MPhil POLIS on Global Black Resistance.

Research Interests

Courses