Dr Biruk Terrefe

Biruk Terrefe is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Bayreuth and a Research Associate at the University of Oxford’s African Studies Centre. His interdisciplinary work lies at the intersection of political science, development studies, and geography, with a focus on how infrastructure projects and urban spaces relate to the politics of statecraft in Africa.

His research currently spans two main areas of interest. The first area investigates the relationship between infrastructure and state-building, particularly how large energy, transport, and logistics systems have shaped (and are shaped by) political orders and overlapping sovereignties, especially in the Horn of Africa. Infrastructures are highly contested material spaces of negotiating the nature of the state across different administrative scales and geographic space. His second area of research focuses on Africa’s urban turn and the political and social struggles that arise in cities, their peripheries, and hinterlands during rapid urban redevelopment. By examining the tensions between urban planners, political elites, and marginalized social groups, his research delves into the ideological drivers and broader poltical implications of these urban transformations.

Prior to Bayreuth, Biruk Terrefe was a Departmental Lecturer in African Politics at the Oxford’s Department of Politics and International Relations (DPIR). He holds a PhD and a Master’s degree from Oxford’s Department of International Development (ODID), a BA from Bremen and spent a semester at Science Po Paris. Beyond academia, Biruk was a Carlo-Schmid Fellow at the World Health Organisation in Copenhagen, and he frequently provides analysis and research insights to international organizations and non-governmental bodies.

Research Interests: State-building and Development; Politics of Infrastructure; Cities & Africa’s Urban Futures; State-Society Relations; History and Politics of the Horn of Africa; Federalism & Local Government