University of Cape Coast

Dr. Saibu Mutaru
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Dr. Saibu Mutaru

LecturerSenior Membersaibu.mutaru@ucc.edu.gh

I am a social anthropologist with special interest in the anthropology of Africa. I received my Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology with Political Science from the University of Ghana, Legon in 2007. In 2011, I won the prestigious Commonwealth-Shared Scholarship to study at the Centre of African Studies, University of Edinburgh where I graduated with a Master of Science degree in Africa and International Development. I worked briefly as Education Coordinator and Project Manager for an Austrian NGO based in Ghana, BRAVEAURORA. In 2015, I was awarded the Lisa Maskell Doctoral Fellowship by the Graduate School of Arts and Social Sciences, Stellenbosch University (South Africa). I officially enrolled as Lisa Maskell Doctoral Fellow at the Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology, (Stellenbosch University), graduating with a PhD in Social Anthropology in 2019. While studying for my doctoral degree, I won the Monica Wilson Prize in anthropology, a prestigious award conferred by Anthropology Southern Africa. In 2020, I joined the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, University of Cape Coast, Ghana. I currently serve as Lecturer and Graduate Seminar Coordinator in the Department. In August 2023, I was elected as the Evans-Pritchard Lecturer for 2023-24 by the University of Oxford. I hold this position until May 2024. My teaching and research interests include ethnography, anthropology of religion (witchcraft, magic, rituals), medical anthropology, anthropology of aging, and the anthropology of development and human rights. I have conducted fieldwork in northern Ghana. I have published in internationally reputed journals including the Nordic Journal of African Studies, Social Dynamics, and Anthropology Southern Africa.