Source: https://africanstudies.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/james-pritchett-1.jpg
Originally from Alabama, Pritchett earned a bachelor’s degree from Ohio State University, and master’s and doctoral degrees from Harvard University. His dissertation focused on a complete re-study of the Lunda-Ndembu people on the Central African Plateau, first studied by Victor Turner in the early 1950s. Pritchett’s work is concerned with the interaction between tradition and modernity in contemporary Africa, particularly the ways in which social change is interpreted and validated according to local belief systems. He also has a strong interest in the African Diaspora and has studied communities of African-descended people in the Caribbean, Brazil and in Central and South America. He has taught courses on African history and culture; anthropological theory; development; and symbols, rituals, and myths.
Pritchett began his Boston University career in 1990 and held a variety of positions there, including assistant, associate and acting director of African Studies, and associate provost for intra-university programs. In 2009, he served as Professor of Anthropology, President of the African Studies Association, and former Director of the Michigan State University African Studies Center. He has served as a member of the Board of Directors of the African Studies Association and a member of the Board of Advisors of the International Consortium for Law and Development. Pritchett has served as a Research Officer at the University of Zambia, and has conducted fieldwork there, and in Angola and Congo since 1982.
Professor Pritchett served as a Research Officer at the University of Zambia, and conducted fieldwork there, as well as in Angola and Congo. He also had a strong interest in the African Diaspora and studied communities of African-descended people in the Caribbean, Brazil, and elsewhere in Central and South America.
He is the author of Lunda-Ndembu: Style, Change and Social Transformation in South Central Africa (University of Wisconsin Press, 2001), and Friends for Life, Friends for Death: Cohorts and Consciousness among the Lunda-Ndembu (University of Virginia Press, 2007).
Professor Pritchett profoundly shaped the field of African Studies through his visionary leadership and his passion for engaging the continent from a broad range of positions and perspectives. In so many ways, his 2014 Presidential Lecture “A Reflection on the State of African Studies” changed the way we understand our past and how we, in turn, must plan for our future.
His permanent library collection now resides at Tuskegee University.
Sources:
https://msutoday.msu.edu/news/2008/james-pritchett-new-director-of-msu/
http://anthropology.msu.edu/author/pritch41/
https://www.bu.edu/tanglewoodtwo/committee/pritchett/index.html
https://africanstudies.org/news/asa-mourns-the-loss-of-professor-james-a-pritchett/