From Exception to Example: Ethiopia in International Law

Adom Getachew is Neubauer Family Assistant Professor of Political Science at the College at the University of Chicago. She is a political theorist with research interests in the history of political thought, theories of race and empire, and postcolonial political theory. In the Colloquium of January 28, 2021 she will present her thoughts on the exceptionalities of Ethiopian history. Ethiopia’s standing as the only African country to escape colonialism has long established its position as the exceptional state at the centre of Black internationalist and Pan-Africanist thought. Yet this mode of exceptionalism can also be particularizing in ways that undermine comparative analysis and theorizing of Ethiopia in relation to the African world. Adom Getachew will thus examine Ethiopia’s relationship to and position within the League of Nations from 1923 to 1935 with the aim of illustrating how Ethiopia’s international position illuminates key features of colonial domination, especially the racialization of sovereignty. Through this analysis, it is suggested to read the exception for the ways it illuminates in stark form the general experience of colonial domination.

The event will take place online. You can join the meeting by clicking the Zoom button below.