As Chairperson of the Department of History of Addis Ababa University, Prof Zewde fostered a vibrant tradition of annual departmental seminars and co-organised two Eastern African History Conferences as well as starting a collaborative research project on Ethiopian land tenure with the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. As Director of the Institute of Ethiopian Studies, Prof Zewde directed a SSRC-funded project for the compilation of a Catalogue of Clandestine Literature in Ethiopia, initiated the South Omo Research Center, and convened the Adwa Centenary International Conference in February-March 1996. As Executive Director of the Forum for Social Studies, he led a number of policy research projects, raised its culture of policy dialogue to the highest level as well as organizing the first international conference on civil society.  He participated in a number of CODESRIA research networks and has been editing its journal, Africa Review of Books, since 2004. Prof Zewde has supervised scores of theses and dissertations and mentored a number of young historians and authored four books, edited or co-edited eight others and published dozens of articles. His prizes and awards include: the British Council Scholarship, 1972-1976; British Academy Fellowship, June-September 1983; French Government research grant, July-September 1986; Japan Foundation Fellow, January-March 1991; USIA and NEH Visiting Scholar, Boston University, July-September, 1991; Visiting Fellow, St. Cross College and St. Antony's College, Oxford University, Michaelmas Term 1992; Golden Jubilee Award for "diligence, exemplary conduct and outstanding contribution", Addis Ababa University, 11 December 2000; Fellow, Wissenschaftskolleg (Institute for Advanced Study), Berlin, October 2010-July 2011; Founding Fellow and Vice President of the Ethiopian Academy of Sciences since 2010.