Dr. David Pratten

Biography

David Pratten joined the African Studies Centre in 2005-06. He is a social anthropologist with a joint appointment at the Institute of Social Anthropology. He studied at Oxford, Manchester, and SOAS, and has previously taught at the universities of Edinburgh and Sussex. David has been the Head of the School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography from 2021 to 2024. His research focuses on long-term engagement with Annang villagers in south-eastern Nigeria, addressing themes of history, violence, and the state, initially through historical ethnography concerning mysterious deaths in the late 1940s. He also examines youth, democracy, and disorder in post-colonial Nigeria, particularly vigilantism and new masquerade performances. He was a co-organizer of the African Print Culture Network and is currently engaged in research on xenophobic exclusion in Africa through a project funded by the French National Research Agency. David's publications include the monograph "Man-Leopard Murders: History and Society in Colonial Nigeria", awarded the 2007 Amaury Talbot Prize, and he has contributed to various edited volumes and journals. He teaches MSc African Studies and supervises MPhil and DPhil students in the Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology, earning a Teaching Excellence Award in 2009. David has also held leadership roles such as Director of the African Studies Centre from 2009 to 2013 and has been a Co-Editor of AFRICA: Journal of the International African Institute.

Research Interests

Experience