Yirga Gelaw Woldeyes is the Director of the Curtin University Centre for Human Rights Education. He is an Associate Professor, multidisciplinary researcher and award-winning writer from Lalibela, Ethiopia. His publications include the sole authored book Native Colonialism: Education and the Economy of Violence Against Traditions in Ethiopia (New Jersey: The Red Sea Press, 2017) and co-edited book (with Offord, Fleay, Hartley and Chan) Activating Cultural and Social Change: The Pedagogies of Human Rights (London: Routledge, 2022). In 2024, Yirga won the prestigious Hungerford Award for his book የተስፋ ፈተና/Trials of Hope, which was later published by Fremantle Press in 2026. He has a strong reputation as a public intellectual in Ethiopia, Australia and globally, with regular invitations to provide testimony to government and NGO bodies and to appear in media interviews on topical human rights issues in both English and Amharic. He also provides service as the Vice-President of the Development Studies Association of Australia (DSAA).