Head of Department: Habtai Zerai
B.A., Addis Ababa University
M.A., Addis Ababa University,
Specialization: Cultural History

Overview
The Department of History was established as a key component within the College of Social Sciences in 1996. Since then it has offered a four-year degree program leading to a BA in History.

Eritrea's past is desperately in need of more systematic scholarly research. The country's history, particularly with regard to the pre-colonial period, remains in the shadow of Ethio-centric studies, largely due to the political and cultural distortion of successive occupying regimes and poorly developed sources of evidence. Therefore, due to a lack of a sound scientific tradition, political and emotional factors tend to dominate over the objective analysis of facts. The Department of History of Asmara University is clearly committed to preparing a cadre of professional Eritrean Historians to begin the enormous task of documentary and oral research, and to develop a greater understanding of the nation's history.

The curriculum offered by the department of History provides a foundation for some of the most promising history students to pursue graduate studies abroad. These students will then, hopefully, return to Eritrea with adequate training to conduct field research, author texts and monographs and eventually become the core of the university's history faculty. History graduates, particularly those minoring in Political Science will have a very good chance of being employed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in various capacities, including research, analysis and diplomacy. Eritrea has a number of archives and documentary collections where trained Historians can play an important role in organizing and expanding materials. Trained historians with a background in Archaeology can work effectively within the expanding Ministry of Tourism to help develop appropriately tailored historical tours; to train tour guides and to consult with developers to ensure care is taken to avoid destruction of critical archaeological sites.