Batamaka somé, from Burkina Faso, is a doctoral candidate in Anthropology. He has a BA in Modern Languages and Anglophone Studies and an MA in African Literature, both from the University de Ouagadougou. He has received several awards and fellowships as well as distinction for excellence in teaching, writing, and international understanding. His most recent major award is a National Science Foundation Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant. He is a former president of the African Students' Organization and co-president of the Graduate Anthropology Student Association on campus. He is proficient in several languages and has published a forthcoming entry in the Encyclopedia of the Modern World.
 His research focuses on household relations as they affect the attitudes and interest vis-à-vis cotton growing in Southwest Burkina Faso, and the impact of women's recent organic cotton production on cultural change and social relations. Batamaka also plans to observe the environmental behaviors of randomly chosen women of different farming households and analyze the long-term consequences on land fertility and productivity. He hopes his research will provide tools for impacting polices in rural development and gender equity at national, regional, continental and even global levels.