Professional Presentations

2019   Invited panelist, “2018 Agricultural Improvement Act: Status Quo with Seeds of Agrarian Justice” for Busboys & Poets Public Roundtable, Washington DC

2019   Invited panelist, “Will the U.S. Agricultural Spectrum/Sector Be What Finally Topples the Cuban Embargo?” for Center for Latin America and Latino Studies panel, American University

2019   “Scales of Reference & Reckoning as Ontologies of Accounting & Justice” Dimensions of Political Ecology Conference, University of Kentucky

2019   “Dialogue as Data As Dialogue: Emancipatory Methodologies for the Rural Over-studied and Under-served” AAG, DC (co-presenting with V. Limeberry*)

2018   “The Criminalization of Agrarian Movements: Leveraging Law & Violence Against Land Defenders” Political Ecology Network (POLLEN) conference, Noragric University, Norway

2018   “Comparative Agrobiodiversity Policy Analysis: Treaties, Seed Laws, and Grassroots Declarations” POLLEN, Noragric University, Norway (co-presented with V. Limeberry*)

2018   “Femming the Farm? Gender Equity Claims & Accountability in Agricultural Aid” Dimensions of Political Ecology Conference, University of Kentucky (co-presented with V. Limeberry*)

2018   Invited panelist, “Trends and Perspectives of Cuba-US Relations during the First Year of the Trump Administration,” Center for Research for International Politics and the Raul Roa Garcia Higher Institute of International Relations, Havana, Cuba

2018     Invited talk, “The Secret Old Crisis of Surplus: 20^th Century Geopolitics of U.S. Agricultural Governance, Gain & Glut,” Historical Research Cluster Speaker Series, AU SIS

2018     Invited presentation “Informing Agricultural Biodiversity Governance: Democratizing Data, Placing Policy,” SESYNC-NSF Pursuit Inaugural Workshop, Annapolis MD

2018     Invited speaker, “Food Justice in Appalachia and US South,” West Virginia University

2018     Invited speaker, Centre de coopération internationale en recherche agronomique pour le développement  (CIRAD), Montpellier, France

2018     Invited instructor, Intensive PhD Summer Course, “Agrarian Cosmopolitics: Political Ontology, Land Justice & the Decolonial Option,” Wageningen University & Research, The Netherlands

2018     Invited panelist, XII Encuentros de Agroecología, Agricultura Orgánica y Sostenible, The Cuban Association of Agricultural and Forestry Technicians (ACTAF), Havana, Cuba

2018     Invited speaker, “Critical Food Interventions” Workshop and Symposium, University of Delaware

2018     Invited speaker, “Beyond the Grassroots: Participatory Ecology and Political Praxis,” Annual Mellon Symposium of the Hurford Center for the Arts and Humanities, Haverford College PA

2018     Invited panelist, “Decolonial Feminist Political Ecology: Emergences and Futures,” American  Association of Geographers (AAG), New Orleans LA

2018     Invited panelist, “Agrobiodiversity & Conflict,” AAG, New Orleans

2018     Invited panelist, “Rethinking Food Access Research,” AAG, New Orleans

2018     Invited presenter, Emancipatory Rural Politics Institute conference, International Institute for Social Studies, The Hague, Netherlands [unable to attend in person]

2018     Invited panelist, “Let Justice Roll Down Like Waters: The Role of Spirituality in African American Environmental Activism in the U.S. South,” International Antipode Foundation-funded Workshop and Symposium, University of Louisville, Kentucky

2018   Invited panelist, “Public Political Ecology: From Communities of Practice to Communities of Praxis,” Dimensions of Political Ecology conference, UK

2017   Invited panelist, “Trends and Perspectives of Cuba-US Relations during the First Year of the Trump Administration,” Center for Research for International Politics and the Raul Roa Garcia Higher Institute of International Relations, Havana, Cuba

Grants and Sponsored Research

Academic Honors & Awards

2019       Faculty Research Support Grant, American University, Vice Provost’s Office for “Mapping (Agrobio)Diverse Pathways to Nourishment: Focus Groups for Shared Analysis of Data Synthesis Regarding Agricultural Biodiversity for Food Security & Nutrition” ($10K)

2018      Awarded Institute for Human Geography Small Research Fund for “Radical food geographies: Connecting knowledges, cultivating practices, (re)imagining governance” pre-AAG meeting ($5K)

2018     Winner of the Campus Compact Mid-Atlantic’s Alan G. Penczek Service-Learning Faculty Award in the private institution category

• Recognizes and honors faculty member for excellence in the integration of service-learning into the curriculum and impact to students and the community. 

2018     Co-Principal Investigator for “Diverse Pathways to Nourishment: Understanding How Agricultural Biodiversity Enhances Food Security & Nutrition” National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center (SESYNC) Pursuit, National Science Foundation (NSF) DBI-1639145 ($92K)

2018     Practicum Featured as First Model Program for Environmental Engagement, Building Just Communities, Campus Compact Mid-Atlantic 2018 Report

2017     School of International Service Dean’s Summer Research Award: “Cultivating Dialogue: A History, Geography & Policy Analysis of U.S.-Cuban Agrarian Cooperatives’ Collaboration” ($4.7K)

2017     Berkeley Food Institute, University of California-Berkeley. Co-sponsored “US Farm Bill 2018: Politics, Policy & Potential” Symposium at AU SIS ($21K)

2016     Christopher Reynolds Foundation Grant (through Center for Latin American & Latino Studies) to organize workshop and panel: “Cultivating Dialogue: A Comparative, Participatory Analysis of U.S. & Cuban Agricultural Cooperative Policies” ($4K)

2015 & 2016 & 2019     School of International Service Faculty-Student Conference Travel Award

2013     Provost’s International Travel Award, American University ($2.5K)