The Open Learning Initiative for Refugees – OLIve is a free of charge, academic non-degree programme to people of refugee and asylum-seeking status to support them in connecting their previous professional and academic experience to their new lives in Europe, including the possibility of higher education studies at a later stage. It is funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Commission and realized by the Department of Communication of the University of Vienna, in cooperation with the CEU – Central European University, Budapest, and the University of East London. Bruktawit assists the project administrator in handling administrative functions. She also provides lectures for the participants and facilitates academic discussions.
Bruktawit Ejigu Kassa from Ethiopia is a PhD candidate at the University of Vienna, Department of Communication. Her research aims to explore gender and the media in the African context. She is interested in studying the role of media on the framing and construction of gender notions and ideologies. Bruktawit got her Bachelor’s degree in Teaching English Language from Haramaya University, Ethiopia in 2004, and completed her Master's degree in Journalism and Communication in 2008 at Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia. Her thesis investigated the framing of gender violence by the Ethiopian print media. Before joining the University of Vienna, she had been teaching in the Department of Journalism and Mass communication at Haramaya University, Ethiopia. Furthermore she has also served as the head of the Department for three years.