Name:	Jericho Burg
Education:	Ph.D.  Candidate in Communication, University of California, San Diego. Dissertation Title: Fixing Famine: The Politics of Information in Famine Early Warning. Advisor: Robert B. Horwitz. Expected completion date: June 2007. M.A. in Anthropology, Certificate in African Studies, University of Florida, 1991. B.A. in Anthropology and English, Williams College, 1987. Concentration in African and Middle Eastern Studies.
Research Interests:	In my dissertation I examine the politics of information production and dissemination in famine early warning in Ethiopia. Famine early warning systems - large-scale information systems incorporating climate, agricultural, market, and public health data - have become a major part of famine prevention efforts since the 1970s, but have not succeeded in reducing famine occurrence. One reason is lack of consensus on what causes famine and how best to mitigate or eradicate it. The differences between famine early warning systems operated by different organizations reflect this lack of consensus. Divergent approaches are the result of political struggles over the meanings of famine and appropriate response. The questions I seek to explore in my research include how the politics of the systems shape their design, implementation, and use, as well as their policy role, as well as how these politics result in decisions that are only tenuously linked to famine mitigation, if at all. This has potentially devastating results, as the interactions between donors, governments, and humanitarian agencies ultimately fail to meet the needs of people affected by famine and may very well create conditions that perpetuate famine. The politics of early warning also preclude the participation of communities identified as famine-affected in making decisions about their own welfare. This has implications for the role of the systems in famine prevention, as the problems that donor and governmental "decision makers" respond to may not in fact represent the conditions and needs of the famine-affected people themselves. The project speaks to debates in not only in the politics of humanitarian aid and information technology for development, but also the interaction between science and policy more generally. I hope in the end to produce a study that both contributes to these academic literatures and has practical import for early warning practitioners and policymakers.
Publications:	Measuring Populations’ Vulnerabilities: Ethiopia’s Chronic Vulnerability Index. Forthcoming in Disasters. An Encyclopedia of Africa and the Americas. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, forthcoming. “Eritrea,” “Ethiopia,” “Haile Selassie I,” “Humanitarian Assistance.” "The World Summit on Sustainable Development: Empty Talk or Call to Action?" Journal of Environment and Development 12(1): 111-120. March 2003. Contributing writer, The Encyclopedia of Revolutions and Revolutionaries: From Anarchism to Zhou Enlai, Martin van Creveld, Ed. New York: Facts-on-File Inc., 1996. • wrote 10 articles on various African revolutionaries and independence movements. The Bulldozer in the Countryside: Suburban Sprawl and the Rise of American Environmentalism, by Adam Rome (book review). The Journal of Environment and Development 11(1): March 2002. Explaining Environmentalism: In Search of a New Social Movement, by Philip W. Sutton (book review). The Journal of Environment and Development 10(3): September 2001.
Editorial Experience :	Journal of Environment and Development, Managing Editor, 2002-2003 • Book Review Editor, 2001-2002 • Associate Editor, 2000-2001 Environmental Quality International, Cairo, Egypt. Proposal writer and editor, 1997-1998. WID News, newsletter of Harvard-MIT's Women in International Development. Editor 1995-1996. Florida Journal of Anthropology, Archaeology Area Editor, 1991-1992.
Conference Presentations:	“The Technical Is Political: Bridging a Divide in Famine Early Warning and Humanitarian Response.” American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting, San Jose, CA, November 2006. “What If You Starve When There Is Rain? The World Food Programme’s Drought Insurance Scheme in Africa.” African Studies Association Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA, November 2006. “Food Insecure or Just Plain Hungry: How Humanitarian Organizations Define Famine.” Society for the Social Studies of Science Annual Meeting, Vancouver, British Columbia, November 2006. Co-organizer of panel on “Representing the Locals: How International Organizations Make Science” with Olga Kuchinskaya. “Methodology Wars: The Politics of Emergency Needs Assessment in Ethiopia.” International Studies Association Annual Meeting, San Diego, CA, March, 2006. Paper (PDF) , Poster (PDF)   “Vulnerable Households: The Politics of Modeling Food Insecurity.” American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting, Washington, DC, November 2005.  Chaired panel on “Security, Risk and Vulnerability: The Anthropology of Disaster Preparedness.”   “Modeling Household Economies: ‘It’s Like Religion.’” Society for the Social Studies of Science Annual Meeting, Pasadena, CA, October 2005. Co-organizer of panel on “Tools to Manage Uncertainty: The Politics of Risk Assessment.” “Is Famine Response an Information Problem or an Infrastructure Problem?” Binational Schools of Communication Conference, Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico, April 2005.   “Measuring Populations’ Vulnerabilities in Theory and Practice: Ethiopia’s Chronic Vulnerability Index.”  African Studies Association Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA, November 2004. “The Standardization of Famine: Consequences of the Infrastructures of Famine Early Warning.” Symposium on The Infrastructures of Digital Design: Thinking/Building/Living, San Diego, CA, January 31-February 2, 2003.
Teaching Experience :	Lecturer, Department of Communication, University of California, San Diego. Colonialism and Culture, Summer 2005   Senior Teaching Assistant, Department of Communication, University of California, San Diego. Provided orientation, training and guidance to department teaching assistants. Wrote Handbook for Communication Department Teaching Assistants and Readers, 2004-2005 Teaching Assistant, Department of Communication, University of California, San Diego. • The Film Industry, Fall 2005 • Introduction to Communication, Summer 2002, Spring 2003. • Introduction to Communication as a Social Force, Fall 2002. • Introduction to Communication and Culture, Winter 2002. • Introduction to Communication, Spring 2002. Lecturer in English, Makalle Business College, Makalle, Ethiopia, 1999-2000. Instructor in English, American University in Cairo Center for Adult and Continuing Education, Cairo, Egypt, 1997-1998.
Fellowships and Awards:	Fletcher Jones Dissertation Fellowship, University of California, 2006-2007 Dissertation Writing Fellowship, Department of Communication, UCSD, 2006   Scholarship to attend Values in Computer and Information System Design Workshop, Santa Clara University, 2005 Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation Dissertation Fellowship, 2004-2005   Fulbright Fellowship awarded for dissertation research in Ethiopia, 2003-2004   Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation Travel and Research Award, 2003-2004   Tecle Kidane-Mariam Scholarship, Friends of the International Center, UC San Diego, 2003   Foreign Language and Area Studies Summer Fellowship for language study (Amharic). Awarded by James S. Coleman African Studies Center, UCLA, 2003   University of California Regents Graduate Fellowship, 2000-2001