Dr. Rock’s research examines the development, use, and discourse over genetically modified crops in Africa. The bulk of this work has taken place in Ghana, where Dr Rock conducts ethnographic research with farmers, activists, officials, and scientists. Her manuscript on this research – We are not starving: The Struggle for Food Sovereignty in Ghana – is forthcoming in September 2022 from Michigan State University Press.
Additionally, Dr. Rock is a co-PI on the mBio Project, which uses tools from data science, social science, and digital humanities to build interactive platforms for the public to explore agricultural biotechnologies. Relatedly, she is interested in new genome-editing tools, and what sort of political and agronomic implications they might have for agricultural systems in Africa.
Finally, Dr. Rock is in the early stages of an archival project that is examining the Sasakawa Global 2000 program, an ambitious effort by Norman Borlaug, Jimmy Carter, and Ryōichi Sasakawa to bring a “Green Revolution” to Africa.
To date, her research has been funded by the Fulbright Program, the Wenner-Gren Foundation, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Schmidt Family Foundation, the Explorers Club, American University, New York University, and the University of Cambridge.
