James Ferguson

James Ferguson is Susan S. and William H. Hindle Professor in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, and Professor in the Department of Anthropology at Stanford University. His research focuses on southern Africa and has engaged in a broad range of theoretical and ethnographic issues, including changing topographies of property and wealth and experiences of modernity. Prior to his current appointment, Ferguson served as Professor of Anthropology, Chair of the Department of Anthropology, and Director of the Critical Theory Institute at the University of California, Irvine. Some of his recent publications include Give a Man a Fish: Reflections on the New Politics of Distribution (2015) and “From Anti-Politics to Post-Neoliberalism: A Conversation with James Ferguson” (2014). He has published widely in journals such as Antipode, the Journal of Agrarian Change, and the Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute. Ferguson holds a BA in Cultural Anthropology from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and an MA and PhD in Social Anthropology from Harvard University.