RESEARCH FOCUS
Kristin’s research focuses on social justice in the global food system through lenses of critical food geography and action research.
One branch of her research examines social equity dimensions of urban agriculture and food policy, about which she has researched and published extensively.
A second branch of her scholarship is participatory research and scholar activism, including work with numerous community-based food and social justice organizations, and as co-founder and coordinator of the American Association of Geographers Food and Agriculture Specialty Group’s Food Justice Scholar-Activism/Activist Scholar community of practice.
CURRENT PROJECTS
Commercial Urban Agriculture and Social Justice
This is a comparative study of commercial urban agriculture and policy changes in New York City and Paris.
Photo credit: Kristin Reynolds
New York and Paris have expanding for-profit urban agriculture systems and evolving policies related to the professionalization of urban food production; Yet it is not clear to what extent these will increase economic power or food access in low income communities. This research seeks to understand whether and to what extent commercial urban agriculture might support economic equity and social justice in U.S. and European contexts. The comparative project is in collaboration with colleagues at Université Paris 8 (Vincennes-Saint-Denis).
Read our fall 2018 research brief in the City University of New York (CUNY) Urban Food Policy Institute’s Food Policy Monitor.
Read Kristin’s summer 2019 analysis of a proposal to create a comprehensive urban agriculture plan in New York City in the City University of New York (CUNY) Urban Food Policy Institute’s Food Policy Monitor.
Food Justice Scholar-Activist/Activist Scholar community of practice (FJSAAS)
In conjunction with the American Association of Geographers’ Geographies of Food and Agriculture Specialty Group, Kristin is co-founder and coordinator of this recently-formed international community of practice focused on :
the meaning and scalability of “food justice” (in urban and rural spaces);
productive questioning of the dichotomy between activist and scholar;
recognition of experience-based food systems expertise in a variety of settings;
the potential roles of academics/academic work in advancing food justice.
* Read our related special journal issue on Food Justice Scholar-Activism and Activist Scholarship in ACME: An International Journal for Critical Geographies (Vol 17., no. 4). (Open-access = free to download for all.)
* Read about our co-sponsored Radical Food Geographies workshop in Washington, D.C., April 2, 2019.
* Find more information about FJSAAS here.