Wendy James (anthropologist)

James was born on 4 February 1940 to William Stanley James and Isabel James (née Lunt). She was educated at Kelsick School, a grammar school in Ambleside, Cumbria.[1] She studied geography at St Hugh's College, Oxford, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in 1962.[1][2]

James's interest in Africa was developed through the stories her father told her about his time working in Uganda and her interest in anthropology was sparked during a "'hands-on' introductory course at the Pitt Rivers Museum" in Oxford during her undergraduate degree.[3] She therefore changed direction and remained at St Hugh's College studying anthropology, completing a Bachelor of Letters (BLitt) degree in 1964.[1][2] She undertook postgraduate research on a part-time basis at Oxford, completing her Doctor of Philosophy (DPhil) degree in 1970.[1] Her doctoral dissertation was titled "Principles of social organisation among the Uduk speaking people of the southern Fung region, Republic of the Sudan".[4]

From 1964 to 1969, James was a lecturer in social anthropology at the University of Khartoum in Sudan.[1] During this time, she "conducted traditional ethnographic research among the Uduk people living in the Blue Nile region along the Sudan/Ethiopian border".[3] From 1969 to 1971, she was a Leverhulme research Fellow at St Hugh's College, Oxford.[1] Between 1971 and 1972, she was a visiting lecturer at the University of Bergen.[1][5]

In 1972, James was elected a Fellow of St Cross College, Oxford,[2] and appointed a University Lecturer in social anthropology at Oxford's School of Anthropology.[2][5] She was awarded a Title of Distinction as Professor of Social Anthropology in July 1996.[6] In 2007, she retired from full-time academia and was appointed an Emeritus Fellow of St Cross College.[5]

In addition to her university positions, James held a number of appointments. She was President of the Royal Anthropological Institute from 2001 to 2004.[1] She was Vice-President of the British Institute in Eastern Africa from 2001 to 2011.[5] She worked as an occasional consultant to bodies such as the United Nations Operation Lifeline Sudan, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the United Kingdom's Foreign and Commonwealth Office.[2]

In 1977, James married Douglas H. Johnson, a British historian and academic. Together, they have had two children: one son and one daughter.[1]

James was awarded the Amaury Talbot Prize for African Anthropology by the Royal Anthropological Institute for her monograph The Listening Ebony: Moral Knowledge, Religion and Power among the Uduk of Sudan in 1988.[7] In 2005, she was awarded an honorary Dr Scientiarum Anthropologicarum (DSc) degree by the University of Copenhagen.[1][5] She was awarded the Rivers Memorial Medal by the Royal Anthropological Institute in 2009.[8]

In 1999, James was elected a Fellow of the British Academy (FBA), the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and social sciences.[5] In the 2011 Queen's Birthday Honours, she was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) "for services to scholarship".[9]

• Cunnison, Ian; James, Wendy, eds. (1972). Essays in Sudan ethnography: presented to Sir Edward Evans-Pritchard. London: Hurst. ISBN 978-0900966545.
• James, Wendy (1979). 'Kwanim Pa: the making of the Uduk people; an ethnographic study of survival in the Sudan-Ethiopian borderlands. Oxford: Clarendon Press. ISBN 978-0198231943.
• Donham, Donald; James, Wendy, eds. (1986). The southern marches of imperial Ethiopia: essays in history and social anthropology (1st ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0521322379.
• James, Wendy (1988). The listening ebony: moral knowledge, religion, and power among the Uduk of Sudan. Oxford: Clarendon Press. ISBN 978-0198234036.
• James, Wendy; Johnson, Douglas H., eds. (1988). Vernacular Christianity: essays in the social anthropology of religion presented to Godfrey Lienhardt. New York: Lilian Barber Press. ISBN 978-0936508238.
• James, Wendy, ed. (1995). The pursuit of certainty: religious and cultural formulations. London: Routledge. ISBN 978-0415107907.
• James, Wendy, ed. (1998). Marcel Mauss: a centenary tribute. New York: Berghahn Books. ISBN 978-1571817037.
• James, Wendy (1999). The listening ebony: moral knowledge, religion, and power among the Uduk of Sudan (Paperback ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0198234166.
• Dresch, Paul; James, Wendy; Parkin, David, eds. (2000). Anthropologists in a wider world: essays on field research. New York: Berghahn Books. ISBN 978-1571817990.
• Donham, Donald L.; James, Wendy, eds. (2002). The southern marches of imperial Ethiopia: essays in history and social anthropology (2nd ed.). Oxford: James Currey. ISBN 978-0821414491.
• James, Wendy; Donham, Donald L.; Kurimoto, Eisei, eds. (2002). Remapping Ethiopia: socialism and after. Oxford: J. Currey. ISBN 978-0821414477.
• James, Wendy (2003). The ceremonial animal: a new portrait of anthropology. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0199263332.
• James, Wendy; Mills, David, eds. (2005). The qualities of time: anthropological approaches. Oxford: Berg. ISBN 978-1845200459.
• Collingwood, R. G. (2005). Boucher, David; James, Wendy; Smallwood, Philip (eds.). The Philosophy of Enchantment: Studies in Folktale, Cultural Criticism, and Anthropology. Oxford: Clarendon. ISBN 978-0199262533.
• James, Wendy (2007). War and survival in Sudan's frontierlands: voices from the Blue Nile. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0199298679.
• Allen, Nicholas J.; Callan, Hilary; Dunbar, Robin; James, Wendy, eds. (2008). Early human kinship: from sex to social reproduction. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing. ISBN 978-1405179010.

• Interviewed by Alan Macfarlane 15 May 2009 (video)