Category Archives: News and Events

For/From: Considering Origins – Spring 2024 Public programs at Hayes Hall

Dr. Samina Raja, founder and director of the UB Food Lab, will deliver a lecture, “Dis)entangling research(ers) from/in place,”
on Feb 14, 2024 at 6:00 PM. The lecture kicks of the school’s public program series at the School of Architecture and Planning – University at Buffalo for spring 2024.
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Description of lecture: The theorist and economist Amartya Sen challenges the idea of identity as a solely emergent object. He argues identity constitutes three parts — individual, perceived (by others), and socially engaged (in a particular context) — and that identity is the result of reasoned choices subject to some (minimal) constraints. Drawing on Amartya Sen’s work, in this lecture, Samina Raja reflects on the importance of the identities of planners in making and unmaking spaces and places. For whom do they research, and from where do they draw their frames of inquiry? The identities of the researcher influence the relevance of their research, the rigor of their research, and, ultimately, urban planning as a field of inquiry and practice. Raja will draw on examples of food systems research in the cities of Buffalo (United States) and Srinagar (Jammu & Kashmir) to discuss the epistemological possibilities and challenges of researchers’ positionality vis-a-vis particular places, times, and people. In doing so, she explores the ethical dilemmas researchers encounter when entering, residing, and researching in, and often exiting the places of their planning and design inquiry and practice — places where they may belong or unbelong by virtue of their identities.
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Join UB in Hayes 403

Mapping the invisible: Bridging and trusting networks in sustaining the urban food systems

In this new article titled “Mapping the invisible: Bridging and trusting networks in sustaining the urban food systems” in CITIES, ElSEVIER, Dr. Emmanuel Frimpong Boamah and colleagues share five key insights about Buffalo’s food systems:

  • Buffalo’s food system mostly comprises a close-knit network of local grassroots organizations
  • The network has a ‘small world’ effect showing a short chain of actors linking all actors
  • Food advocacy, information sharing, and high levels of trust help sustain and reproduce the network
  • Few actors serve as resource and information hubs and brokers within the network
  • The network tells a story of local self-reliance and co-production among urban growers and grassroots organizations

The article makes visible the social network infrastructure of people sustaining the urban food system in the post-industrial city of Buffalo, NY. It does so by probing how networks are launched and sustained over time, who is responsible for the networks, and to what end. The authors employ a survey to collect data on social networks among actors within the city’s food system. The findings suggest that Buffalo’s urban food system is a constellation of close-knit networks comprised primarily of local grassroots organizations having ‘small world’ effects— that is, short chains of actors within the network link all actors. These central actors rely on their high levels of trust and shared beliefs and vision to socially reproduce, sustain, and strengthen their urban food system through advocacy and information sharing. In sum, we find that Buffalo’s food system story is one of local self-reliance, co-production, and co-dependency among urban growers and other grassroots actors whose day-to-day practices and lived experiences are largely excluded from the municipal government’s policies and decisions.

Read the full article here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264275123005620

Our Lab alumni, an MPH student Rose Thomas is featured in UB News: She believes macro-level change can improve the health of marginalized communities.

Understanding Urban Neighborhoods

Published November 15, 2023

By Catherine Donnelly

Rose Thomas, MPH/MSW ’23, believes macro-level change can improve the health of marginalized communities and came to UB to explore her interests through the MPH/MSW program. She took a circuitous path to get here, having switched majors several times as an undergrad. She finally chose to focus on understanding the impact of the environment on health and selected public health for her bachelor’s degree.

“I had many questions about city neighborhoods, like, ‘Why aren’t the sidewalks walkable? Where are healthy food options?’ and ‘How can we make neighborhoods healthier?’” she says.

“I realized I needed to expand my opportunities and chose social work because of how it unravels the history of structural racism and inequities that marginalized groups have faced,” she continues. “I was especially interested in learning more about how I can address these issues through macro social work, like nonprofit management, policy, and evaluation.”

At UB, she started with the MPH portion of her dual degree and then moved into social work courses, leveraging her team-building skills to create a community of peers who studied together.

“I was fortunate to know several other students doing the MPH/MSW, too,” she says. “I think it is a great combination, but the pandemic made it challenging. My advice to other students in this dual program is to advocate for yourself, work with your peers as a collective and talk to your professors.”

Thomas combined her MSW and MPH field placements to work at the International Institute of Buffalo in Survivor Support Services and at the Partnership for the Public Good, a community-based think tank that works on action-oriented research, policy development, and citizen engagement.

Outside of her required field experiences, Thomas also worked at the UB Food Lab and was able to conduct research that evaluated the Healthy Community Store Initiative to ensure the availability of healthy produce on the East Side of Buffalo and improve policies that help urban growers of color to have better access to resources.

“I have always wanted to help people affected by food apartheid. Overall health is impacted by the availability of nutrients, and food insecurity causes a lifetime of stress,” she says. “I loved that this lab reflected my values and beliefs, especially in terms of working on community-led research projects – uplifting the power, voice, and autonomy that community has.”

Before graduating, Thomas won a HRSA Public Health Scholarship for her efforts to strengthen the public health system and decrease health disparities for underserved communities. She also received the Julio Ramirez Memorial Award, dedicated to the late Ramirez and his passion for addressing social issues affecting the health of individuals, families, communities, and populations.

Today, Thomas is a public health consultant for the Ohio Department of Health in Columbus, Ohio. She was drawn to the position because it ensures that state programs for children adhere to health equity principles.

“Most of my experience has been working directly with youth or children,” she says. “Overseeing programmatic efforts on a wider scale is definitely a change, but I am excited to bring my experience with community engagement and evaluation.”

https://socialwork.buffalo.edu/about/our-students-and-faculty-and-alumni/our-alumni-students.host.html/content/shared/socialwork/home/alumni-students/alumni-students/rose-thomas.detail.html

Updating Municipal database

Do you know of a local jurisdiction that has adopted or updated policies related to urban agriculture or land access in the past ten years? The UB Food Lab is updating the municipal policy database Growing Food Connections. The update focuses on urban agriculture, particularly policies impacting land access. If you are aware of any such recently adopted policies, consider sharing them with Growing Food Connections. It will be added to the publicly available database. Please send any relevant information to the UB Food Lab at foodsystems@ap.buffalo.edu.

Conference Updates: Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning

UB Food Systems Planning and Healthy Communities Lab members in action: Carol E–Ramos Gerena and Micaela Lipman presented at the recently held 63rd Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning (ACSP) conference. This year, the ACSP conference was held in Chicago on October 20, 2023.
Carol Ramos presented about her soon-to-be-published paper titled “Regulating Belonging: Contradictions in Puerto Rico’s Agricultural Land-Use Policies.”

Micaela Lipman was the presenting author for the paper titled “Fools, Assets, Criminals, and Leaders: How do comprehensive plans conceptualize youth.”

Leveraging Agriculture and Food Systems for Human Health: Opportunities for Transdisciplinary Research and Training

Leveraging Agriculture and Food Systems for Human Health: Opportunities for Transdisciplinary Research and Training
Keynote by Dr. Samina Raja 
Dr. Samina Raja is delivering a keynote lecture on “Leveraging Agriculture and Food Systems for Human Health: Opportunities for Transdisciplinary Research and Teaching” at Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology (SKUAST) Kashmir on  Nov 8 (Wednesday) at 12 AM EST.

The keynote is part of a 6-day grant writing workshop organized in association with the Division of Plant Biotechnology, Department of Horticulture, and K-Lab. More details about the keynote are below:

Title: Leveraging Agriculture and Food Systems for Human Health: Opportunities for Transdisciplinary Research and TeachingVenue: Virtual Classroom, Old Horticulture building, Shalimar

Keynote : Nov 8 (Wed) 12:00 AM EST
Full workshop: Nov 8-Nov 15, 2023

Critical Food Policy Literacy by Carol E. Ramos-Gerena

Food policies should be informed by those who they intend to serve, but policy-making processes remain exclusive to privileged voices, knowledge, and experiences.

In this article, Carol E. Ramos-Gerena asks: What do people know by becoming food policy literate? And who benefits or loses when a particular definition of food policy literacy becomes the norm? This paper conceptualizes critical food policy literacy for municipal food policy transformations. Click here to read the full article: https://www.foodsystemsjournal.org/index.php/fsj/article/view/1135/1106
https://doi.org/10.5304/jafscd.2023.122.008

Kashmir’s Women Scientists

Kashmir’s Women Scientists

Historically, the women in Kashmir have remained empowered enough to be part of every sphere of life. Though they have traditionally picked a set of jobs as their careers in education, governance, business and medical science to suit their homemaking role, some of them have opted for challenging careers. Humaira Nabi talks to a number of Kashmir women scientists detailing their journeys in the challenging field and their core research focus

By Kashmir Life – 8:53 pm February 11, 2023

“A Darker Wilderness” , a Book Talk by Erin Sharkey

Erin Sharkey will speak about her incredible book A Darker Wilderness at 6:00 PM on Tuesday May 23, 2023 in 403 Hayes Hall, UB South Campus.

“What are the politics of nature? Who owns it, where is it, what role does it play in our lives? Does it need to be tamed? Are we ourselves natural? In A Darker Wilderness, a constellation of luminary writers reflect on the significance of nature in their lived experience and on the role of nature in the lives of Black folks in the United States. Each of [the] essays [in the book] engages with a single archival object, whether directly or obliquely, exploring stories spanning hundreds of years and thousands of miles, traveling from roots to space and finding rich Blackness everywhere.”

About Erin Sharkey

Erin Sharkey is a writer, arts and abolition organizer, cultural worker, and film producer based in Minneapolis. She is the cofounder, with Junauda Petrus, of an experimental arts collective called Free Black Dirt and is the producer of film projects including Sweetness of Wild, an episodic web film project, and Small Business Revolution, which explored challenges and opportunities for Black-owned businesses in the Twin Cities in the summer of 2021. Sharkey has received fellowships and residencies from the Loft Mentor Series, VONA/Voices, the Givens Foundation, Coffee House Press, the Bell Museum of Natural History, and the Jerome Foundation. Sharkey was recently awarded the Black Seed Fellowship from Black Visions and the Headwaters Foundation. Erin is a cofounding coop member and steward of Rootsprings, a rest and respite retreat center in central MN. She has an MFA in creative writing from Hamline University and teaches with the Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop.

Join UB Food Lab in welcoming Erin Sharkey to Buffalo to read and reflect on this remarkable project.