Joanna Davidson is a cultural anthropologist focusing on rural West Africans’ responses to environmental and economic change. She has conducted long-term ethnographic research in Guinea-Bissau among Diola rice cultivators. She is writing a book on the changing notion of “sacred rice” in this region, and she has published several articles on this and related topics. One important aspect of her work highlights the gaps between goals of development and programs and local peoples, and helps explain the mixed success of new food technologies in Africa. She received her BA from Stanford University and her MA and PhD from Emory University.