The Department of Anthropology at the University of Gondar was established in October 2004, and was the first university in the country to offer a BA degree in Anthropology. In 2008, the BA degree in Anthropology was changed to a BA degree in Social Anthropology to meet the growing need for professionals in this sub-field and to restrict the scope of the degree to a manageable level. At this time, name of the department was also changed to Department of Social Anthropology. In 2011, the Department launched a new Masters’ degree program in Development Anthropology with the objective of contributing to the educational goals established by the Ministry of Education and to the development problems in the country. In 2015 the MA program underwent a shift in focus in recognition of the need for a wider perspective in line with international standards, resulting in a shift in focus from Development Anthropology to Social Anthropology, while still maintaining a focus on anthropological contributions to social and economic development in line with the University mission. Around that time, the Department was also identified as one of the potential departments for expansion into a PhD program by 2016/17. At this juncture, it also became apparent that training students only to the Masters’ level was not sufficient to meet the growing demand for highly qualified academic staff to engage in research and teaching at institutions of higher learning in the country, and the Department set its sights on a new PhD Program in Social Anthropology. The department continues to expand its postgraduate program by launching a PhD program in Social Anthropology in the year 2019.
