I am a researcher and Associate Professor in the Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change (EUC) at York University. My academic and organizing work is grounded in environmental justice, with a focus on land and food systems. Much of my research aims to situate political economic processes – such as agri-food industrialization, financialization, and policy – within a lens of settler colonial patriarchy and racial capitalism. I also explore the consequences of these processes for sovereignty, justice and resistance movements more broadly. My work has focused on topics ranging from the political economy and ecology of farmland tenure and critical perspectives of big data in agriculture, to the ways that settler colonial logics and gendered narratives uphold extractive practices and relationships on the land. A lot of my research examines public and private institutions (institutional ethnographies), including government ministries, research institutes, funding agencies, and industry sectors.

My research is often collaborative and interdisciplinary in nature, and I have a keen interest in the ethics, politics and process of research itself. In my current work, I am learning from feminist, decolonial, and community-based scholars, activists, and methodologies to collaboratively explore and move toward more accountable and reciprocal research relations. I also do community-based work with various organizations and campaigns including food and farmer’s associations, fossil fuel divestment, as well as climate justice and food sovereignty movements.

I am also a member of the RAIR Collective (a group of Indigenous and settler academics, food provisioners, and community-based activists), which is a collective exploring grassroots Indigenous rematriation and (re)connection to land in support of the convergence of food sovereign peoples. We aim to help advance dialogue and action for Indigenous land rematriation grounded in principals of food justice and Indigenous sovereignty.

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