Profile

T. Garrett Graddy

Assistant Professor
School of International Service

  • Prof. Graddy is a broadly trained cultural geographer focusing on political ecologies and political economies of food and agriculture. Her current work builds on doctoral research with in situ agricultural biodiversity initiatives in the Peruvian Andes and Appalachian US, contextualizing such grassroots conservation within larger goals of community food security in an era of global climate change and the regeneration of what is alternately called ‘traditional’ or place-based ecological and agrarian knowledges. She conducts field research in Peru and the U.S. to understand how such initiatives are articulating and actualizing reconfigurations of standard modes and models of development, security, sustainability, and expertise. Meanwhile, she is continuing to investigate UN CBD, UN FAO, USDA, USAID, and international (Andean nation) policies regarding food security, agrobiodiversity conservation, genetic intellectual property, and agribiotechnology research funding and regulations. She also engages the dynamic cultural memory inherent in seed saving, and the feminism and social justice of revaluing semi-subsistent-oriented labor, skill, and knowledge.

  • Degrees

    University of Kentucky, Doctorate of Philosophy, Geography, Harvard Divinity School, Master of Theological Studies, Yale University, Bachelor of Arts, cum laude

  • Favorite Spot on Campus:

    Dav cafe seating outside SIS

    Book Currently Reading:

    Coloniality at Large: Latin America & the Postcolonial Debate

  • OFFICE

  • SIS - School of International Service
  • SIS - 306
  • Tuesdays (2-5pm) and Wednesdays (9am-noon)

  • CONTACT INFO

  • (202) 885-6269 (Office)
  • Send email Profile UserID

  • FOR THE MEDIA

  • To request an interview for a
    news story, call AU Communications
    at 202-885-5950 or submit a request.

Teaching

  • Spring 2013

    • SIS-386 Sel Topics: Global Soc Justice: U.S.: Labor & Food Justice
    • Description
    • SIS-419 Adv Topics in Int'l Relations: Pol Ecol of Food & Agriculture
    • Description

  • Fall 2013

    • SIS-620 Stds in Global Envirn Politics: Pol Ecol of Food & Agriculture
    • Description
    • SISU-350 Topics in Env Sustain/Glb Hlth: Pol Ecol of Food & Agriculture
    • Description

Scholarly, Creative & Professional Activities

Honors, Awards, and Fellowships

  • Provost Outstanding Teaching Award, University of Kentucky, 2010
  • College of Arts & Sciences Certificate of Outstanding Teaching, University of Kentucky, 2009   
  • Latin America Specialty Group Field Study Award for doctoral students, Association of American Geographers, 2008   
  • Dissertation Enhancement Award, Graduate School, University of Kentucky, 2007   
  • James S. Brown Graduate Student Research in Appalachia Award, University of Kentucky, 2007   
  • Multi-Year Fellowship, Graduate School, University of Kentucky, 2004-7   
  • Daniel R. Reedy Quality Achievement Award, Graduate School, University of Kentucky, 2004-7   
  • Directed Studies Program, Yale University, 1996-7

Professional Presentations

  • “The Value of (agricultural bio)Diversity: A Critical Dialogue” Association of American Geographers Annual Conference, February 2012, New York, NY.   
  • “Rhythm, Memory, Narrative: Spatial Epistemologies of Seed-saving” Association of American Geographers Annual Conference, April 2011, Seattle, WA.   
  • “The Paradox of Heirloom Seed-Saving, or: Reconsidering Class, Wealth, and Development in Appalachian Kentucky” Appalachian Studies Association Annual Conference, March 2011, Richmond, KY.   
  • Invited guest scholar, UMN Agrifood Studies Reading Group, University of Minnesota, June 2011, Minneapolis, MN.   
  • “UN Decade of (Agri)Biodiversity: From Conservation to Regeneration,” Faculty Colloquium, Environmental Studies & Technology Program, Carleton College, April 2011, Northfield, MN.   
  • “Multi(agri)culti: Critical race theory & (agrobio)diversity” (invited panelist) Association of American Geographers Annual Conference, April 2011, Seattle, WA.   
  • “Critical Geography Contributions to STS Theory” (invited panelist) Critical Geography Conference, November 2010, Milwaukee, WI.   
  • “Public Scholarship and Community Engagement I” Association of American Geographers Annual Conference, April 2010, Washington DC (invited as the panel discussant by Dr. Lakshman Yapa).   
  • “Law, Life & the Saved Seed: Agrobiodiversity, Biopoliticized” Political Ecology Working Group Conference, University of Kentucky, February 2011, Lexington, KY.   
  • “Engaging ‘Traditional Ecological Knowledge’: Epistemologies of Agricultural Biodiversity” Association of American Geographers Annual Conference, April 2010, Washington, DC.

Selected Publications

  • “In situ Political Ecology: Agrobiodiversity & cosmovisión in the Peruvian Andes” (Accepted, with revision, by Agriculture & Human Values)   
  • “Seeds, Space, Power: An in situ critical geography of agrobiodiversity in the Peruvian Andes” (Being revised for Antipode)  
  • “Agrarianism,” “Low Input Agriculture,” and “Home Gardens” (2010) in Mulvaney, D., J. Golson, P. Robbins (eds) Green Food: An A-Z Guide. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Reference.   
  • “Politics of Scale” in (2010) D. Mulvaney, J. Golson, P. Robbins (eds) Green Politics: An A-Z Guide. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Reference.

AU News and Achievements