Behailu Shiferaw Mihirete is a PhD student in the Rhetoric, Media and Publics program. He examines popular and institutional rhetorical practices and their roles in the constitution, performance, and negotiation of identities. All his research projects work to expose how socio-political actors use least-suspected rhetorical practices to interpellate citizens into less critical subjects. One thread of his research, for example, investigates the political rhetoric of public commemorative practices, i.e. how hegemonic groups strategically represent the past to gain or maintain social control in the present, and how those practices are contested by counter publics. The objects of his analysis range from the quotidian speech acts of individual citizens and activists through the manifestos of social and political organizations, to the constitutions, flags, stamps, monuments, and anthems of states. All these interests converge in his pursuit of understanding how identities (and their boundaries) are constituted and contested in and through public culture. Behailu holds an MSc in Politics and Communication from the London School of Economics and Political Science (2019); an MA in Journalism and Communication from Addis Ababa University (2009); and a BA in Foreign Language and Literature from Hawassa University (2006).