James A. Wilson, Jr. PRAIRIE VIEW- PVAMU has appointed James A. Wilson, Jr. as its honors program director. Under Wilson’s leadership, Prairie View A&M University’s Honors Program will serve as an expanded service to gifted students and will aid the university in producing highly trained graduates qualified for highly competitive graduate programs and for roles in academia, business and professions in Texas, the U.S. and in the international community.
In his new role, Wilson will work collaboratively with various academic units to create a comprehensive academic environment and lead the expansion of the PVAMU University Scholars program activities into an actual Honors College.  His specific duties will include coordinating the Honors Program curricula, recruiting faculty, hiring staff and mentoring students and assisting students with the process of to applying for competitive awards and scholarships.
Prior to his post at Prairie View A&M, he served as an assistant professor of history at both the University of Texas at Austin and Wake Forest University in North Carolina. He is also a noted scholar of the political history in educational reform in Kenya and East Africa. Wilson has been published in academic journals on the African Diaspora and world civilizations.
Once an active Peace Corps volunteer in Kenya, Wilson has mentored numerous Peace Corps participants and has received awards and fellowships including a Mellon Foundation faculty grant and grants from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation. He received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Texas at Austin, a master’s degree in professional studies from Cornell University and both a master’s and doctoral degree in history from Princeton University.