Brian J. Yates earned his BA from Morehouse College in 2002 and his PhD from the University of Illinois in 2009. Previous to his present position as an associate professor of history at St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia, PA, he was a Mellon Post-doctoral fellow at Oberlin College . His research focuses on the identities, societies and cultural practices of the highlands of Northern Ethiopia, specifically the historical provinces of Wällo and Shäwa during the 19th century. His work has appeared in History in Africa, Journal of Oromo Studies, International Journal of Ethiopian Studies, Journal of Black Studies, Northeast African Studies and African Identities. He has also published an article on the Reginald Hudlin’s run on the Black Panther in Fire!!!: The Multimedia Journal of Black Studies, which has led to a guest editorship on a special edition of FIRE!!! focused on Blackness in Graphic Novels and Comics. Dr. Yates has also published entitled The Other Abyssinians: The Northern Oromo and the Creation of Modern Ethiopia published by the University of Rochester Press in 2020. Works in progress aim to broaden understandings of Black identities using the lenses of gender, popular culture and colorism throughout all of the African Diasporas.
