The New School for Social Research has proudly presented the 2006
Distinguished Alumnus Award to Berhanu Nega (PhD in Economics, 1991) at
the 2006 Graduation Ceremony on May 19, 2006.

Founded as the University in Exile in the 1930s, The New School for
Social Research created a safe haven for leading European scholars under
threat at home. Their progressive ideas and quest for justice and equality
inspired a tradition of probing democratic dialogue that continues in our
classrooms today and is brought by our students to the wider world in often
difficult and dangerous environments. It is in this spirit that we recognize Berhanu
Nega, a leading proponent of democracy in his native Ethiopia, who received his
PhD in economics in 1991.

A respected economist and politician, Nega has taught at the University
of Addis Ababa and in 2005 was the first elected mayor of Addis Ababa
in the country’s history. He has served as president of the Ethiopian
Economic Association, founded and served as director of the Ethiopian Economic
Policy Research Institute, and was a consultant for the UN Economic Commission
for Africa. Prior to his work in Ethiopia, Nega served as an assistant professor at
Bucknell University.

On November 1, 2005, Nega was arrested along with several prominent
members of the Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD), Ethiopia’s
leading opposition party. These arrests followed protests over recent Ethiopian
election irregularities in which more than 80 people were killed and hundreds
wounded. Nega and his political allies are being held on charges of treason-an
offense punishable by death under Ethiopian law. Amnesty International regards
them as “prisoners of conscience, arrested solely for the non-violent expression of
political beliefs.”