Johns Hopkins SAIS professors awarded grants for practical ethics research in food security and humanitarian disasters

MEDIA ADVISORY
 
Two scholars at the Johns Hopkins University Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) have been named the recipients of grants to pursue practical ethics research in the fields of food security and humanitarian disasters.
 
Dr. Jessica Fanzo, Bloomberg Distinguished Associate Professor of Ethics and Global Food and Agriculture at Johns Hopkins SAIS, the Berman Institute of Bioethics, and the Bloomberg School, will analyze the ethics of human health and animal welfare in a new California bill that limits antibiotic uses in food-producing animals while she examines the consequences of the law. She will be collaborating with Dr. Meghan Davis, Assistant Professor at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and a former dairy veterinarian.
 
“We have a rare opportunity to reach out to farmers to understand how the unintended consequences of regulation—in this case, through potential harm to their animals from elimination of uses of antibiotics—can be a barrier to their engagement,” Fanzo said. “This will be critical as other states adopt or consider similar legislation.”
 
Fanzo also serves as the Director of the Global Food Ethics and Policy Program at Johns Hopkins, and plays key advisory roles in Johns Hopkins’ Alliance for a Healthier World on the food security and nutrition theme, as well as the Bloomberg American Health Initiative on obesity and food systems.
 
She currently is the Co-Chair for the Global Nutrition Report, and the Team Leader for the High-Level Panel of Experts for Food Systems and Nutrition for the UN Committee on Food Security. Her expertise includes global food security, nutrition and diet, agriculture and the environment, and food systems.
 
Dr. Sarah Parkinson, the Aronson Assistant Professor of Political Science and International Studies, will investigate the “everyday” ethical issues that affect war-adjacent professionals including humanitarians, journalists, and scholars on the ground in preparedness in humanitarian disasters.
 
“I am thrilled to receive this grant, especially as complex humanitarian emergencies such as those in Syria, Myanmar, Yemen, and South Sudan increasingly influence global politics and policy making,” Parkinson said. “I frequently find that while people such as aid workers and journalists are applying best practices on the ground and working overtime to do so, the nuances of crisis environments produce unforeseen and hard-to-negotiate ethical challenges. This research is about identifying common ethical tensions in these environments and seeking out productive means of coping with them in consultation with refugee and migrant communities.”
 
Parkinson has previously conducted extensive research among Palestinian and Syrian refugees in Lebanon, and with humanitarian providers in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. Her expertise includes organizational behavior and social change during and following war, specifically related to the Middle East and North Africa.
 
She serves on the Steering Committee of the Project on Middle East Political Science and has previously held fellowships at Yale University’s Program on Order, Conflict, and Violence; the Institute for Middle East Studies at George Washington University; and the Institute for Advanced Study at the University of Minnesota.
 
Parkinson and Fanzo, who will both serve as principal investigators during their upcoming research, are a part of seven groups that were awarded a combined $350,000 in grant funding through the JHU Exploration of Practical Ethics program. The program launched in 2015 to explore real-world solutions for ethical challenges across a range of topics. It previously awarded nine groups with internal grant funding for ethics research in 2016.
 
Media Contact
Stacy A. Anderson
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About Johns Hopkins SAIS
A division of Johns Hopkins University, the School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) is a global institution that offers students an international perspective on today’s critical issues. For nearly 75 years, Johns Hopkins SAIS has produced great leaders, thinkers, and practitioners of international relations. Public leaders and private sector executives alike seek the counsel of the faculty, whose ideas and research inform and shape policy. Johns Hopkins SAIS offers a global perspective across three campus locations: Bologna, Italy; Nanjing, China; and Washington, D.C. The school’s interdisciplinary curriculum is strongly rooted in the study of international economics, international relations, and regional studies, preparing students to address multifaceted challenges in the world today.
 
For more information, visit sais-jhu.edu or @SAISHopkins
 
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