People

Assistant Professor, School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape

Postdoctoral Researcher, Department of Geography, Mobility through Lund University (Sweden)

Rebecca Laycock Pedersen is a transdisciplinary researcher and educator working in the field of sustainability science. Her research focuses on urban agriculture, sustainable food, sustainability education, and participatory/action-oriented methods. Rebecca will be coming from Blekinge Institute of Technology in Karlskrona, Sweden where she has been studying the impacts of a Malmö-based urban agriculture incubator programme. She received her doctorate in Environment and Sustainability from Keele University, England, has an MSc in Environmental Studies and Sustainability Science from Lund University, Sweden, and a BFA in Visual Art and Environmental Studies from the University of Victoria.

Email: rebecca.laycockpeder@ucalgary.ca

Numata Chair in Buddhist Studies, Department of Classics and Religion

Wendi Adamek holds the Numata Chair in Buddhist Studies in the Department of Classics and Religion at the University of Calgary – specialising in early and medieval Chinese philosophy and religion with most of her publications centering on 6^th-8^th century Buddhism. She has carried out multidisciplinary studies of two unique Buddhist-practice communities and their engagements with regional, cultural and political influences. Born in Hawai’i, she has been involved in forest and cultural restoration projects on her home island of Maui. Using phenomenology, network, and complexity theorists in dialogue with Buddhist theorists Wendi investigates analogies between experiential and environmental dynamics, which she engages in terms of copoietic or relational feedback loops between sensory modes and constructing activities. Her praxis includes long-standing Buddhist contemplative practice, and recent immersion in a rural environment and food-growing experiments. In 2018 Wendi completed the online permaculture design certificate course offered by Geoff Lawton and the Permaculture Research Institute. 

Research Associate, Simpson Centre in the School of Public Policy, UCalgary

John Bailey is interested in the role of social and interpersonal factors in the creation and implementation of policy and planning, with a strong focus on food systems. He has spent years engaged in research, engagement, and direct involvement in a variety of academic, professional, and volunteer contexts. With a Master’s Degree in Environmental Design, and a BA in Psychology, Mr. Bailey provides a collaborative and interdisciplinary approach to research and policy development that is well-positioned to understand the complex issues surrounding food, agriculture, the environment, and fostering resilient communities.

Email: john.bailey2@ucalgary.ca

MA Thesis Student, Department of Geography

Natalie Bakko is a Masters of Arts student in Geography at the University of Calgary under the supervision of Dr. Marit Rosol. Her current research addresses the intersections of food insecurity and housing insecurity in Calgary. Various international agreements state that a lack of adequate access to food or housing each constitutes a violation of human rights. Yet, these disparities are still often treated independently in approaches addressing poverty. Analysing the scope of actions through which, and levels at which, issues of access to food and housing are addressed in Calgary, by government and civil society, is key to understanding how greater social equality can be fostered in the city.  

Email: natalie.bakko@ucalgary.ca

PhD Candidate, Department of Philosophy

Alican Basdemir works on the ways that social, moral, and political values influence decisions about data sharing and data reuse in agricultural and biodiversity research. He is interested in how researchers and stakeholders can negotiate their value judgments to come up with more socially responsible practices of data sharing. Drawing upon recent strategies of data management, Alican explores the roles of institutions in managing these decisions about value judgments in data sharing by including relevant stakeholders including smallholder farmers, citizen scientists, and indigenous communities.

Email: alican.basdemir@ucalgary.ca 

Professor, Environmental Design, School of Architecture, Planning, and Landscape

I work with Indigenous communities in the arctic and sub-arctic. Most of my work has focused on traditional and contemporary food systems and land use, village supported farming and gardening in the Yukon Circle, and some past work with Even reindeer herders in Siberia. From 1991-2015 I worked on the reintroduction of wood bison from Elk Island to their original range in Alaska. Current research includes controlled environment food production in Yukon Territory, northern and southern borderlands agroecology, farmer/rancher local knowledge, climate change and water scarcity in the prairies.

Email: scgerlac@ucalgary.ca OR scgerlach@alaska.edu

Office Phone: 403-220-5699

Assistant Professor in Transdisciplinary Mountain Studies, Department of Geography, University of Calgary

Lauren is a transdisciplinary researcher who explores the complex interrelationships between humans, other animals, land, and water, with a focus on mountain regions such as the Canadian Rockies. With a PhD in geography and background in feminist intersectional theory, Lauren’s research aims to understand the interconnections between social and ecological precarity through food systems, social movements, governance, and land regimes. Using community-based and participatory action research, her work teases out possibilities for building relationships across difference to create positive, transformative change.

Email: lauren.kepkiewicz@ucalgary.ca

Food Program Coordinator, City of Calgary, MA Geography Alum (UCalgary)

Abby Landon completed her Master of Arts in Geography at the University of Calgary under the supervision of Dr. Marit Rosol. Her research focused on the relationship between local food systems and ethnically diverse communities in Calgary. Now, she works for the City of Calgary as a Food Program Coordinator, implementing the CalgaryEATS! Food Action Plan. Initiatives include the Farm Stand Program, Calgary Community Food Map, Vacant Land Initiative, and developing a new Food Resilience Plan. Learn more at calgary.ca/food.

Email: abby.landon@calgary.ca

Assistant Professor, Development Studies Program, Department of Anthropology and Archaeology

Ben M. McKay is an assistant professor of development and sustainability at the University of Calgary in Canada. His research focuses on the political economy and ecology of agrarian change in Latin America, agrarian extractivism, and food sovereignty alternatives. He is the author of The Political Economy of Agrarian Extractivism: Lessons from Bolivia (Fernwood, 2020) and co-editor of The Edward Elgar Handbook of Critical Agrarian Studies (Edward Elgar, 2021) and Rural Transformations and Agro-Food Systems (Routledge, 2018).

Email: ben.mckay@ucalgary.ca

Medical Student, University of Calgary

Shelby Montgomery is currently a medical student at the University of Calgary with a previous career in food systems. She has worked with initiatives across the food system, from seed to table to landfill. Most recently, Shelby worked with Nourish, a national organization focused on food system change in healthcare, and helped start the Calgary Seed Library, a grassroots organization building seed sovereignty in Southern Alberta. She is still involved with local food justice efforts and plans to integrate her passion for the transformative potential of food into her medical practice. 

Email: shelbymontgomery@live.com

MSc Thesis Student, Department of Biological Sciences

Tobyn Neame is an MSc Student in Ecology at UCalgary working in the Agriculture, Biodiversity, and Conservation lab. They study conservation biocontrol and focus on the relationships that insects have with crop management practices, such as changes to non-crop vegetation and herbicide application. Ground beetles (Coleoptera: Carabidae), as naturally occurring insect predators, are particularly interesting because these beetles may be consuming crop pests. Ultimately, Tobyn hopes to find ways to better utilize ground beetles in food production and find incentives to conserve non-crop vegetation in agricultural landscapes. Tobyn also works in outreach to engage people in insect conservation, for the instrumental value insects provide to our food systems and the intrinsic and relational values that insects present. Tobyn was the lead author on Bumble Bees of Calgary: A Key and Illustrated Guide for Identification of the Bumble Bee Species Found in Calgary, Alberta (Neame, Ritchie, & Summers. 2021).

Email: tobyn.neame@ucalgary.ca

Founder - Food Studies Interdisciplinary Research Group

Professor and Canada Research Chair, Department of Geography

Marit Rosol joined the Department of Geography of the University of Calgary in July 2016. In her current second CRC term she is coordinating a research program consisting of several research projects in different geographical settings that examine how existing, developing, or desired food systems alternatives are able to comprehensively address sustainability challenges and re-build urban-rural relations. The larger context for these questions are global trends of economic integration, state restructuring and the ongoing economic and ecological crises and their impact on social equality and everyday life. Besides a focus on the urban food systems and the geographies of alternative food she also works on housing, urban governance, and participation. Since July 2020 she is serving as one of the three Editors-in-Chief of Canadian Food Studies/ La Revue canadienne des études sur l’alimentation.

Email: marit.rosol@ucalgary.ca

Business Analyst, City of Calgary, Animal and Bylaw Services

MEDes Student, School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape

Erin Shoults is currently working towards a Masters' Degree in Environmental Design within the School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape Design and researching urban food systems role in building sustainability. She holds a deep belief that access to food should be a human right and that personal relationships with the living things we consume as food, are integral in developing healthy, robust food systems that are in balance with the natural cycles of the planet. Erin works at the City of Calgary as a Business Analyst and is working on operationalizing the City's new Urban Hens Pilot Program.

eeshoult@ucalgary.ca 

Professor, Department of Biological Sciences

Research in Jana’s lab takes a botanical perspective and examines important traits involved in improving fruit and seed production. Her research programme works on crop wild relatives to determine features of the environment that optimize pollination and resiliency to climate change. By investigating how plant communities have been changing over time, her research can create forecasts for the future success of a given plant species under various climate change scenarios.

PhD Candidate - School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape 

Research Analyst - Sustainability Studies

Alex Wilkinson is a PhD Candidate in the School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape and a Research Analyst in the Sustainability Studies program. My academic background is a BSc in Applied and Environmental Geology, and an MSc in Sustainable Energy Development. My PhD research explores social ecological systems and systems thinking, sustainable food systems, responding to change, and resilience, with a specific interest on developing place-based strategies for responding to social ecological changes such as climate change and developing resilient food systems. I am also an instructor in the Sustainability Studies undergraduate certificate program. 

Email: apwilkin@ucalgary.ca