Though she was widely regarded for her academic accomplishments, Audrey Richards never held a chair in anthropology. She held lectureships at the London School of Economics, the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa, and the University of London. She also held various positions in the Colonial Office, participating in the formation of the Colonial Social Science Research Council (1944). In 1950 she became the first director of the East African Institute of Social Research (Makerere College, Kampala, Uganda). In 1956, Richards returned to her alma mater Newnham College, Cambridge, where she had been elected a fellow. From 1956 to 1967, she was also director of the African Studies Centre at the University of Cambridge. She was Smuts Reader in Anthropology at Cambridge between 1961 and 1967. She served as president of the Royal Anthropological Institute and as the second President of the African Studies Association of the UK, 1964-65.
