Barbara E. Ward (1919–1983) was a British social anthropologist and academic, who specialised in Chinese society.[1]
Ward was born in 1919. She studied history at Newnham College, an all-women's college of the University of Cambridge. She then attended the University of London, where she gained a diploma in education (a teaching qualification) in 1942.[2] For the next five years she taught in England and West Africa. While teaching in Ghana, she became interested in social anthropology. In 1949, she completed a master's degree from the London School of Economics having studied the Ewe speaking people of Ghana.[3]
In 1950, Ward moved to Hong Kong. She taught sociology at Chinese University of Hong Kong, rising to the rank of reader.[4] She spent three years studying the anthropology of the Kau Sai people. She returned many times to China and wrote about the New Territories area.[3]
During her academic career, she lectured at the University of London, Cornell University, the University of Cambridge, and the Chinese University of Hong Kong.[3]
At the end of her life she was preparing a book on the boat people of Hong Kong.