Virginia Adam was born in 1938 and educated at Cheltenham Ladies College and Newnham College, Cambridge University. Following graduation in 1960 she became an Assistant Research Fellow at the Applied Research Unit of the East African Institute of Social Research. The Applied Research Unit, set up to produce research which would be of use to government departments as well as the University, was largely financed by the Ford Foundation. Virginia Adam's project, under the direction of Dr Derrick Stenning, was intended both to supply information to the Community Development Department and to supply facts about a largely unknown area of central Tanzania. From 1961-1963, she took part in the daily life of her study area in Tanzania, investigating the myths, legends and history of the tribes that she studied. Adam worked at University College London from 1964.
