Ayantu Tibeso is the project assistant for the African Studies Initiative housed within the Institute for Global Studies (IGS) in the College of Liberal Arts (CLA), where she's working alongside students, faculty, and community partners to support the growth of African Studies at the University of Minnesota. As a first-generation African immigrant who has spent years in diaspora advocacy work, she brings both personal insight and professional commitment to building meaningful connections between the university and the community.
Her approach to this role has been shaped by years of grassroots work—collaborating with diaspora communities, writing for public audiences, and finding ways to make academic research speak to real-world concerns. She believes deeply in making knowledge accessible to everyone, not just those within university walls, and in recognizing the wisdom that exists in communities themselves, particularly Indigenous ways of knowing.
Ayantu recently earned her PhD in Information Studies from the University of California, Los Angeles. She also holds degrees in international development and communication studies. She is currently an affiliate researcher at the Immigration History Research Center where she focuses on community archiving and knowledge preservation within the Oromo and African community in Minnesota.