James Pritchett
James Pritchett is an Associate Professor of Anthropology, Director of Boston
University's African Studies Center, and Associate Provost for Intra-University
Programs. He is also Research Officer at the University of Zambia, and has conducted
fieldwork there, and in Angola and Zaire, since 1984. He took his doctorate from
Harvard, doing research on the Lunda-Ndembu people famously studied by Victor
Turner. His own work is concerned with the ways in which social change is interpreted
and validated according to local beliefs, and he is presently completing a book
on this topic. Professor Pritchett also has a strong interest in the African diaspora,
and has studied communities of Africans in the Caribbean, Brazil and elsewhere
in Central and South America.
Professor Pritchett teaches courses on Africa, as well as courses on development and symbolism. In the African Studies Center he has established links between Boston University and institutions in Africa, and has been instrumental in bringing African material into the curriculum of the Boston school system.
270 Bay State Road (ASC), 446
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