Bethlehem Attfield

• BA in English language and literature at Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia
• MSc in Gender, Culture and Society, Birkbeck, University of London

I completed my undergraduate degree in English language and literature at Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia. In 2000, I got my MSc in Gender, Culture and Society from Birkbeck, University of London. Over the years, I have worked in the humanitarian sector as well as private startup business ventures, with vast experience across emergency relief and rehabilitation project work, gender and human rights advocacy, business management, interpretation, literary translation and creative writing.

• I provide mentoring and one-to-one literary translation on-line courses.

The research aims to investigate, via analysis of primary data, the translation and critical commentary of Adam Reta’s four short stories from Etemete Lomishita:

• the significance of hegemonic power in the development of 'African literature’?
• the significance of literary criticism in contemporary African literature?
• the possibility of diversifying translation studies to become more inclusive and broadly interdisciplinary

• Presented a research paper at the "Nothing Happened: Translation Studies before James Holmes" conference at UCL on 9-10 November, 2023.
• Received the Global Africa Translation Fellowship Award 2023, for my current project which aims to build a more inclusive African literary canon, beyond the hierarchies that currently relegate literature in indigenous languages.
• Shortlisted for TA First Translation Prize by The Society of Authors 2022, for my translation of The Lost Spell, written in Amharic by Yismake Worku, published by Henningham Family Press.