Anthropology is a wonderful place to situate myself as a teacher, as a writer, and as a researcher. It always asks us to challenge our most fundamental assumptions and then learn how to broaden our understandings and our horizons for what we think is humanly possible.
– Joanna
Joanna Davidson is an associate professor of anthropology and faculty director of BU’s Society of Fellows. She has conducted ethnographic research in rural Guinea-Bissau, West Africa since 2001 and has written a monograph (Sacred Rice, 2016) two edited volumes (Opting Out: Women Messing with Marriage around the World, 2022 and Pathos and Power: Interdisciplinary Perspective on Widowhood in Africa, Past and Present, 2025) and numerous academic journal articles based on her research.
With MISI, Joanna wrote a series of braided essays on naming, marriage, and death. “These three things are very central to most human experiences,” says Joanna. “They punctuate our lives even if they are done in different ways across time and space.” Joanna brought environmental issues to new audiences by including them in her writing and framing them as a part of life without making it the main focus.