Jorgo, Alemayehu
Alemayehu Jorgo
Lecturer | Cultural Anthropology
Dr. Alemayehu Jorgo joined the University of Tennessee Knoxville (UTK) in the Fall of 2022 as the Lecturer of Cultural Anthropology. Prior to UTK, he was a Lecturer of Social Anthropology at Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia, and a Lecturer of Sociology at Jimma University, Ethiopia. He taught various anthropology and sociology courses at both universities, mentored undergraduate students, and served on administrative committees. Dr. Jorgo earned his Ph.D. in Sociocultural Anthropology at the Martin Luther University, Halle/Saale, Germany. His doctoral research focused on understanding the structuration of the Gadaa system (a UNESCO-registered world heritage), an indigenous democratic institution of the Oromo of East Africa.
Courses taught at UTK
Introduction to Cultural Anthropology
Anthropology of Global Inequality
Ethnography of East Africa
Race and Racism
Ethnography of African Religions
Anthropology of Pastoral Societies
Indigenous Political Systems (Spring 2023)
Research
Dr. Jorgo’s research repertoire includes multi-sited ethnographic fieldwork among pastoralist, agrarian and hunter-gatherer societies in East Africa. His research interests include indigenous institutions, the Ethiopian diaspora, the Gadaa system, indigenous democracy and political systems, pastoralism, ethnicity and nationalism, oral history, identity politics, and political and legal anthropology.
Education
Ph.D. Martin Luther University, Germany, Sociocultural Anthropology, 2021
M.A. Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia, Social Anthropology, 2008
B.A. Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia, Sociology, 2001