Hello! I’m an Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology at Stony Brook University. I use ethnographic methods to study the politics of development, agricultural change, and technology.
I’ve spent close to a decade researching a complex and contested global effort to introduce genetically modified crops to Ghana. I study “up, down, and sideways,” meaning I am interested in how actors and power across scale, from multinational corporations to Ghanaian farmers, shape foodways. My book on this research – We are not starving: The Struggle for Food Sovereignty in Ghana – received the 2024 Margaret Mead Award from the American Anthropological Association and the Society for Applied Anthropology.
To date, my research has been funded by the Fulbright-Hays Program, the Wenner-Gren Foundation, and the British Academy, and has been featured in African Affairs; Culture, Agriculture, Food and Environment; Development & Change; The Nation; Nature Bioengineering; Foreign Policy in Focus; and beyond. A full list of my publications can be found here. My work has also been featured in The Economist, Associated Press, and more.
I hold a PhD and MA in Anthropology from American University, and a BA in International Studies from the University of California-San Diego. My previous posts include lectureships at the University of Cambridge and University of California-Berkeley, and postdoctoral fellowships at New York University and Dalhousie University.
Joeva Sean Rock 