Culturally Responsive Engagement in Agriculture, Food & Natural Resources

The course is broken up into five thematic and progressive modules. Module 1 will provide the opportunity for students to investigate contemporary and historical manifestations of oppression and inequities within Agricultural, Food and Natural Resource Sciences (AFNR) - with a special focus on community and educational spaces. Module 2 will support students to explore oppression, power, privilege and white supremacy. Students will explore how these show in society at large, as well as how they personally embody and enact these very things. Module 3 will prompt students to consider the nature of knowledge that is legitimized and knowledge that is suppressed. We will then learn about diverse knowledge systems and decolonizing work. Module 4 will support students to explore culture, identity, intersectionality and positionality within their own and those of other cultural groups. We will consider how some cultures are lifted while others are marginalized in different spaces. Module 5 brings us to learning about methods of bring culturally responsive and anti-racist in AFNR work in educational and community spaces. We will employ the use of equity audits to assess various organizations and to design plans moving forward.