My Biography
Dr. Plunkett’s area of expertise is social anthropology, with an emphasis on social change in complex societies. First having received BA and MA degrees from University of Chicago, Dr. Plunkett went on to pursue a PhD from the University of California, Berkeley, and completed a dissertation on political middlemen and social change in Rajasthan, India. This illustrated the analysis of bureaucracy/community interface and applied anthropology in international development contexts. In October 2003, Dr. Plunkett retired after 28 years of having worked as a Commissioned Foreign Service Officer with the U.S. Agency for International Development. Dr. Plunkett’s first AAA Annual Meeting was in 1960 in Chicago.