Hirut Woldemariam (; born 24 October 1975) is an

Ethiopian Ethiopians are the native inhabitants of Ethiopia, as well as the global diaspora of Ethiopia. Ethiopians constitute several component ethnic groups, many of which are closely related to ethnic groups in neighboring Eritrea and other parts of ...

writer, teacher, politician and former minister of the

Ministry of Science and Higher Education (Ethiopia) The Ministry of Science and Higher Education () was the Ethiopian government ministry established in 2018 which has a responsibility to lead the development of science, higher education, and the technical and vocational education and training (T ...

, Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs. She was the first female

Vice president A vice president, also director in British English, is an officer in government or business who is below the president (chief executive officer) in rank. It can also refer to executive vice presidents, signifying that the vice president is on t ...

Addis Ababa University Addis Ababa University (AAU) ( am, አዲስ አበባ ዩኒቨርሲቲ) is a national university located in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. It is the oldest university in Ethiopia. AAU has thirteen campuses. Twelve of these are situated in Addis Ababa, ...

Life and career

Hirut Woldemariam was born in Debre Markos, Gojjam, Ethiopia from her father Woldemariam Teketel, from

Kambata Kambaata people (Amharic: ከምባታ) are a Cushitic ethnic group that inhabit the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples' Region of Ethiopia. They speak the Kambaata language, It was a province of Ethiopia beginning in the early 15th ce ...

, and her mother Brehane Mekonen, from

Debre Marqos Debre Markos ( am, ደብረ ማርቆስ, Däbrä Marḳos lit: ''Mount of St. Mark'') is a city, separate woreda, and administrative seat of the East Gojjam Zone in Amhara Region, Ethiopia. Etymology Originally named Manqwarar (lit: Cold Place ...

. She has received both her

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

and

Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Tho ...

in Linguistics from

and her

Doctor of Philosophy A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common Academic degree, degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields ...

in Linguistics from the

University of Cologne The University of Cologne (german: Universität zu Köln) is a university in Cologne, Germany. It was established in the year 1388 and is one of the most prestigious and research intensive universities in Germany. It was the sixth university to ...

, Institute of African Studies. She is a

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who pr ...

in the Department of Linguistics and Philology, College of Humanities, Journalism and Communication of the Addis Ababa University. Hirut served in different position of vice presidency in

namely: Vice president for Institutional Development (April 2012 – October 2014), Vice president of External Relations, Strategic Planning and Partnership (January 2010 – April 2012), and Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs (2008–2010) for about seven years. She also served as a Head, Department of Linguistics, Faculty of Humanities, Addis Ababa University (2006–2008). Hirut has been of service to Ethiopia in many cabinet minister's position, which are Ministry of Culture and Tourism (2008–2016), Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs (April–October 2018) and

Ministry of Science and Higher Education {{Unreferenced, date=March 2019, bot=noref (GreenC bot) A Ministry of Higher Education is a government department that focuses on the provision or regulation of institutions of higher education. In some countries these exist as ministries compounde ...

(October 2018 – August 2020). Hirut is now performing duties on a position of Social Affairs Advisor to the

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...

. Hirut has more than 29 original publication and 5 unpublished manuscripts, which are more focused on

Omotic languages The Omotic languages are a group of languages spoken in southwestern Ethiopia, in the Omo River region. The Ge'ez script is used to write some of the Omotic languages, the Latin script for some others. They are fairly agglutinative and have com ...

descriptive linguistics In the study of language, description or descriptive linguistics is the work of objectively analyzing and describing how language is actually used (or how it was used in the past) by a speech community. François & Ponsonnet (2013). All acad ...

historical-comparative linguistics Historical linguistics, also termed diachronic linguistics, is the scientific study of language change over time. Principal concerns of historical linguistics include: # to describe and account for observed changes in particular languages # ...

and

sociolinguistics Sociolinguistics is the descriptive study of the effect of any or all aspects of society, including cultural Norm (sociology), norms, expectations, and context (language use), context, on the way language is used, and society's effect on languag ...

in Addis Ababa University.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hirut, Woldemariam 1975 births Living people 21st-century Ethiopian politicians Ministers of Science and Higher Education Ministers of Culture and Tourism (Ethiopia) Ministers of Labor and Social Affairs of Ethiopia People from Debre Markos