Teshome Gebremichael Wagaw was born and raised in Debre Tabor, Ethiopia. He received his B.A. degree at Avondale College, New South Wales, Australia, and his Ph.D at the University of Maryland, College Park (1965). He has taught schools for five years in different parts of Ethiopia. He was on the Faculty of the Haile Selassie I University as professor, psychology department chair and as dean for eight years. He is the recipient of many honors and awards from different organizations and centers of excellence.

Professor Wagaw is in the true sense of the term a global scholar. He has traveled many times over around the globe in connection with his scholarship and teaching. Besides his native Ethiopia, Dr. Wagaw has lived and worked in Australia; the Middle East; South Africa and the United States. He has traveled and lectured in Japan, South Korea, the Middle East and several countries in central, Eastern and northern Europe.

He was on the faculty of the University of Maryland, Howard University, Michigan State University and at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (in the latter case as Fulbright Visiting Professor), Fellow of the Truman Institute for the Study of Peace. Since 1975 he has been at the University of Michigan as professor of Education, School of Education and Professor of Afro-American and African Studies, and Research Scientist, College of Literature, Science, and Arts.

He is the author of four books and numerous journal articles and chapters in monographs. His writings and scholarships explore many areas of the world with emphasis on Eastern Africa, and the Middle East. He has published five books, three of them by university presses. He has authored numerous journal articles, chapters in books, and several major reports. His works are published in English, French, and Amharic.

He has served as consultant to the United Nations, the World Bank, the Ethiopian, and Egyptian Governments. He has carried out several field studies in Ethiopia, Eritrea, Egypt, and Israel. Most of these studies are original in the sense they were firsts both in geographical and discipline. He was the first to launch Childbearing theory and Practices in Rural Ethiopia, 1971-73; the First comprehensive study of Education System of Ethiopia, and the first author of a major book on that topic.

He made the first ethnographical investigation of the socialization of the Falasha in Israel. Based on that data several major articles and book are published. He is the recipient of two Fulbright Awards, the German Academic Exchange Award, American Council of Education Award, MUCIA Award, Annenberg Institute Fellowship, and others.

He has conceived, developed and teaches courses in the areas of ethnicity and ethnic conflict, race, prejudice, and equity in educational opportunity and educational outcome prejudice; Such notion are taught through such courses as "Education of the Black Child"; Education and Culture of the Black World; International and Comparative Higher Education (North America, Africa, and Western Europe). These courses are taught at the undergraduate and graduate levels.

In connection with his professional responsibilities he has traveled around and many times through most parts of the globe--France, United Kingdom, Italy, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Spain, the former Soviet Union, Sweden, Canada, the Caribbean Islands, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji. He has traveled to South Korea and Japan twice, to participate in international conference and delivered a series of lectures for up to two weeks each time in each country.

At present he is working on a project on comparative, interdisciplinary research on ethnicity, ethnic conflict, and education.