Jed Stevenson is an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Durham University. As a postdoc at Emory University, he carried out research on water-related stress in rural Ethiopia. This mixed-methods study showed that water loomed large as a source of psychological distress among women in this setting. In a follow-up study, he assessed the utility of a household water insecurity scale for assessing the impact of improvements in community water supply.
In recent years he has developed an interest in the health implications of large infrastructure projects. The focus of this strand of work is the Turkana basin in southwest Ethiopia and northwest Kenya, where a cascade of large dams and conversion of riverine ecosystems to monocrop cultivation are blocking local peoples from accessing vital resources. He is co-director of the Omo-Turkana Research Network, a consortium of scholars focused on environmental and social change in the region.
He blogs at A Human View.
Selected publications (full list https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=Rygr67oAAAAJ&hl=en )
- Stevenson, Edward G. J. (2019). Water access transformations: Metrics, infrastructure, and inequities. Water Security, 8, 100047. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wasec.2019.100047
- Pertaub, D.-P., & Stevenson, E. G. J. (2019). Pipe Dreams: Water, Development and the Work of The Imagination in Ethiopia’s Lower Omo Valley. Nomadic Peoples, 23(2), 177–194. https://doi.org/info:doi/10.3197/np.2019.230202
- Stevenson, E. G. J., Ambelu, A., Caruso, B. A., Tesfaye, Y., & Freeman, M. C. (2016). Community Water Improvement, Household Water Insecurity, and Women’s Psychological Distress: An Intervention and Control Study in Ethiopia. PLOS ONE, 11(4), e0153432. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0153432
- Stevenson, Edward G. J., & Buffavand, L. (2018). “Do Our Bodies Know Their Ways?” Villagization, Food Insecurity, and Ill-Being in Ethiopia’s Lower Omo Valley. African Studies Review, 61(1), 109–133. https://doi.org/10.1017/asr.2017.100
- Stevenson, Edward G J, Greene, L. E., Maes, K. C., Ambelu, A., Tesfaye, Y. A., Rheingans, R., & Hadley, C. (2012). Water insecurity in 3 dimensions: An anthropological perspective on water and women’s psychosocial distress in Ethiopia. Social Science & Medicine, 75(2), 392–400. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2012.03.022
- Stevenson, Edward G J, & Worthman, C. M. (2013). Child well-being: Anthropological perspectives. In A. Ben-Arieh, I. Frones, F. Casas, & J. E. Korbin (Eds.), Handbook of Child Well-Being (pp. 485–512). Springer. http://anthropology.emory.edu/home/documents/worthman-lab/journal_articles_2/2014StevensonChildWellBeing.pdf