Visiting Fellow Michelle Jurkovich has been named a Kluge Fellow at the Library of Congress for a five month residence from April-August 2020. The Kluge fellowship program is a competitive program that selects 12 scholars each year from across the humanities and social sciences that are within 7 years of their PhD and provides them funding and work space in the Library of Congress to work on a sustained research project. 

Jurkovich will be working on a new project titled, "Good Enough? The Politics of Constructing the Refugee Ration." The US is the world’s largest food aid donor and both historically has been and currently is the most influential state in determining what communities receiving food aid around the world are able to eat. For this reason, this project focuses on understanding how the US government has decided what is a “good enough” ration basket for varied populations beginning in the years immediately following the Civil War (1865) to the present day. The project critically evaluates key historical moments when ration packages were debated, exploring what explains how authorities decide what constitutes a “good enough” ration and how the language of science and nutrition, social understandings of the “appropriate” diet, and the role of stereotyping and racism has affected and continues to affect important decision-making on what constitutes an “appropriate” ration for a given community. When resources are limited, how do authorities decide and justify which communities get “better” rations? And how does society view the adequacy or inadequacy of those rations? 

You can find more info on the fellowship here: https://www.loc.gov/programs/john-w-kluge-center/chairs-fellowships/fellowships/kluge-fellowships/​​​​​​​