News and Notes
The 19th International Conference of Ethiopian Studies

HARUKAARII
Graduate School ofAsian and African Area Studies, Kyoto University

The 19th International Conference of Ethiopian Studies (ICES) was held August 24-28,2015, inWarsaw, Poland. This was the first ICES to be held in Europe since the 16th such conference, which
was held in Norway. More than 300 people from 24 countries participated in the 2015 conference.
According to the organizers, participants included 70 scholars from Ethiopia, 54 from Germany, 19from Poland, 14 from the USA, 13 from the UK, 11 from Japan, 10 from France, 9 each from Israel,Italy, and Sweden, and 8 each from Norway and Russia. Apparendy, many people from Addis Ababa
University had hoped to participate. However, some of them had canceled for economic reasons.
Thus, the total number of participants from Ethiopia was lower that at the last conference, which washeld in Dire Dawa. On the other hand, the number of participants from provincial universities inEthiopia was remarkable; they came from more than 10 universities. To enable more Ethiopian
researchers to participate in the conference, the conference fee was waived. The University ofWarsaw
invited 12 researchers from Addis Ababa University; other Ethiopian researchers participated using
funds from provincial universities in Ethiopia, or they came from European universities in countries
such as France and Germany.
On the first day, August 24, participants began to register at 8:30 in the main hall of the Old
Library Building at the University ofWarsaw. Presentation venues included the main campus of theUniversity of Warsaw (Old Library Building and Faculty of Oriental Studies) and the National
Museum in Warsaw. A welcoming reception was held in the National Museum, where participantsalso enjoyed a special exhibition. The opening session started at noon. Pro£ Adam Lukaszewicz from
Warsaw University gave the opening lecture, a presentation about the history of Ethiopian studies inPoland. Ethiopian studies in Poland began in the 1950s. Although the people involved in those earlydays planned a conference for 1968, they were unable to achieve that end. Thus, their long-cherisheddream was realized when Poland hosted the 19th ICES.
On the second day, two Ethiopian films were shown at the National Museum in Warsaw: Beti andAmare and Crumbs. We were treated to two keynote lectures, one on the second day and one on thefourth day. Pro£ Baye Yimam talked about "Movement, Contact, and Diffusion of Features in theEthiopian Language Area" on the second day, and Mr. Yaqob Arsano presented on "The New Hydrodiplomacy of the Nile: Prospects for Peace and Security in Northeastern Mrica" on the fourth day.
The main theme of this conference was "Diversity and Interconnections through Space and Time."
In keeping with this theme, participants presented papers on extremely diverse themes and frommany fields of study. Presentations included 38 special panels covering 10 fields: Classical Ethiopia;
Literature; Linguistics; History; International Relations; Law, Politics, and Society; Ecology andEnvironment; Youth and Development; History of Ethiopian Studies and Ethiopianism; Music; andCinema. In addition, 18 general panels included other papers sorted by theme. The organizers of
Ni/o-Ethiopian Studies 21:49-51 (2016)

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each panel determined the presentation time. For example, for the panel in which I participated, eachpanelist was allotted 20 minutes for the presentation and 10 minutes for discussion. Some presenters
who were unable to come to the conference presented via Skype.
As for panels related to education, most of the presentations focused on the question of how wecould attain the developmental goals. The paper presented by Mr. Mohammed Jemal was stimulating.
This paper showed conditions under which history education in school tended to be taken lightly
because it did not relate to development directly. He also highlighted the difficulty of achieving aunified perception of national history in a multiracial state. The majority of the panels and papers
were in the fields of political and social science, which had eight panels. Unfortunately, one of thesewas canceled because all of the presenters were absent. In the panel on issues related to lands at theperiphery ("Power, Peripheries, and Land: Development across the Last Frontiers of Ethiopia"), halfof the papers discussed issues in recent large-scale government-led developments and displacementin the South Omo Valley. Some papers on this issue were presented in another political and social
science panel and in a panel on historical studies. Thus, it seemed that the issue ofland and development in the South Omo Valley drew considerable attention from a lot of researchers both in andoutside Ethiopia. All three panels related to anthropology had numerous papers, so the presentations
took the entire day. One panel, "Culture and Rhetoric in Ethiopia" {the organizer was Pro£ IvoStrecker), showed various examples of cultural interpretations of rhetoric used in specific contexts,
such as in common conversation or in scenes of negotiation.
The weather was comfortable for the duration of the conference, except for one day, when we hadheavy wind and rain. More than 180 people participated in excursions over the course of 6 days. They
visited many historical sites, including the Old Town, which was declared a world heritage site afterreconstruction following the Second World War.
This was my first time participating and presenting at an international conference, so I sometimes
felt nervous and confused. In retrospect, I realize that it was a very fruitful time and a good opportunity for me to forge relationships with international researchers. Through this conference, I gained
new knowledge and motivation to continue my studies.
The conference organizers do not plan to publish proceedings from this conference. Instead, they
recommend that panel organizers and presenters publish papers covering their presentations.
Finally, I would like to thank many people, including the organizers of this conference at Warsaw
University, for managing the event, which proceeded without any significant problems. The 20thInternational Conference on Ethiopian Studies will be held at Mekelle University, Ethiopia, in 2018.

List of participants from japan
Haruka Arii (Kyoto University)
How Women Choose Their Schooling in Their Life Course: The Case ofMaale, Southwestern Ethiopia

Takeshi Fujimoto (Toyama University)
From Frontier to Periphery: An Anthropological Analysis of Lowland Settlement Abandonment among
the Malo of Southwestern Ethiopia

Hideyuki lnui (Yamaguchi University)
From Information Structure, Topic and Focus in Basketo

Minako Ishihara (Nanzan University)
Tariqa as Network: Documentation of the Tijaniya Organization in Ethiopia

Morie Kaneko (Kyoto University) & Masayoshi Shigeta (Kyoto University}
Formation and Sharing of Local Knowledge on the Production and Consumption of Fermented Ensete(Ensete Ventricosum, Musaceae) Starch among the Aari People of Southwestern Ethiopia

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Momoka Maki (Sophia University)
Women's Fighter in TPLF: Women's Agency in the Struggle and Post-Conflict Society

Nobuko Nishizaki (Fukushima University)
Dynamics of Cultural Tourism, Wildlife Tourism and Local Community in Southwestern Ethiopia

Chikage Oba-Smidt (Osaka Prefectural University,JSPS Research Fellow)
History and Historical Consciousness in Oral History: An Analysis of the Oral History of Migration ofRayyaa-Oromo
The Political Rhetorics of the Boorana: An Analysis of Rhetorics in the Oral Chronicles of the BooranaOromo

Masayoshi Shigeta (Kyoto University)
Ethnobotanical Research on People-Plant Relationships in Ethiopia: Thirty Years of Engaged Area Studies
with Local People and Ensete (Ensete Ventricosum)

Nobuhiro Shimizu (Keio University), Riichi Miyake (Fuji Women's University), & Rumi Okazaki (Shigeru BanArchitects)
A Study of the Urban Formation Process of an Ethiopian Hillside City and its Adjustment to Current
Urbanization: Case Study on Enda Meskel and Kebele 14 Area at Mekelle City, Tigray Region

Tadesse Daba (Kyoto University) & Masayoshi Shigeta (Kyoto University)
Nutritional, Socio-Economic, and Cultural Values ofTeff (Eragrositis tef} Varieties in EthiopiaGen Tagawa (Hiroshima City University)
Women's Sexuality in the Patriarchy of the Borana-Oromo

Sayuri Yoshida (Nagoya University)
From Differentiation to "Social Discrimination": Changing Relationship between the Kafa and the Manjo
in Southwestern Ethiopia

HARUKA ARII: Graduate School ofAsian and African Area Studies, Kyoto University, 46 Yoshidashimoadachi-cho,Sakyo-ku, Kyoto, 606-8501,]apan.