Nutrition & Food Studies
426 Eggers Hall
Syracuse, New York 13244
315.443.9929
lminkoff@syr.edu
CV (PDF)
Laura-Anne Minkoff-Zern
Ph.D.Associate Professor, Geography and the Environment Department
Graduate Director, Food Studies
Laura-Anne Minkoff-Zern is a human geographer and food systems scholar. She is an associate professor of geography and the environment and graduate director of food studies at Syracuse University.
Minkoff-Zern’s research and teaching broadly explores the interactions between food and racial justice, labor movements, and transnational environmental and agricultural policy. Her forthcoming book “Will Work for Food: Labor Across the Food Chain” (UC Press), looks at labor across food sectors, exploring at the intersections between social movements in United States food systems and labor organizing.
In addition to her first monograph, “The New American Farmer: Immigration, Race, and the Struggle for Sustainability” (MIT Press, 2019), she has also published in journals such as Geoforum, Human Geography, The Journal of Peasant Studies, Food, Culture, and Society, Antipode, Agriculture and Human Values, and Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems, among others.
Minkoff-Zern earned a Ph.D. in geography from the University of California, Berkeley.
Education
Ph.D., Geography, University of California, Berkeley
B.A., Sustainable Agriculture and Development, Cornell University
Specialization
Food systems, immigration and racial justice, agrarian political ecology, labor movements, environmental and agricultural policy
Research Projects
“Enhancing Interagency Collaborations And Food System Resiliency”, Sponsored by National Institute of Food and Agriculture/USDA.
“Closing the Racial Wealth Gap Thought Leadership Partnership with Syracuse University’s Lender Center”, Sponsored by MetLife Foundation.
“Mental Health, Economic Well-Being, and Experiences of Farming in Resettled Refugees in Syracuse, NY”, Sponsored by Fahs-Beck Fund for Research and Experimentation.
“The New American Farmer: Immigration, Race and the Struggle for Sustainability”, Sponsored by Association of American Geographers.
Recent Publications
- Minkoff-Zern, L., The New American Farmer: Immigration, Race, and the Struggle for Sustainability. M.I.T. Press, 2019.
- Dudley, M., Minkoff-Zern, L., Tynan, M. and Zoodsma, A., "Agrarian Hierarchies in Guest Worker Programs: Temporal and Spatial Limitations to Worker and Farmer Coping Strategies." Human Geography, 2024.
- Mares, T., Minkoff-Zern, L., "The Essential Work of Feeding Others: Connecting Food Labor in Public and Private Spaces." Agriculture and Human Values, 2024.
- Gangamma, R., Walia, B., Minkoff-Zern, L. and Tor, S., "Role of Gardening in Mental Health, Food Security, and Economic Well-being in Resettled Refugees: A Mixed Methods Study." Journal on Migration and Human Security, 2023.
- Minkoff-Zern, L., Walia, B., Gangamma, R. and Zoodsma, A., "Food Sovereignty and Displacement: Gardening for Food, Mental Health, and Community Connection." Journal of Peasant Studies, 2023.
- Zoodsma, A., Dudley, M. and Minkoff-Zern, L., "National food security, immigration reform, and the importance of worker engagement in agricultural guestworker debates." Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development, 2022.
- Minkoff-Zern, L., Dudley, M., Zoodsma, A., Walia, B. and Welsh, R., "Protracted Dependence and Unstable Relations: Agrarian Questions in the H-2A Visa Program." Journal of Rural Studies, 2022.
- Goldberg, H., Minkoff-Zern, L., "Teaching labor in food studies: challenging consumer-based approaches to social change through student research community partnerships." Food, Culture & Society, 2022.
- Minkoff-Zern, L., Bellows, A., Welsh, R. and Kiernan, M., "In Remembrance of Our Colleague Evan Weissman: Scholar, Community Leader, Mentor, and Friend." Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development, 2021.
- Weiler, A. M., Sexsmith, K. and Minkoff-Zern, L., "Parallel Precarity: A Comparison of U.S. and Canadian Agricultural Guest Worker Programs." International Journal of Sociology of Agriculture and Food, 2021.
- Minkoff-Zern, L., Welsh, R. and Ludden, M. T., "Immigrant Farmers, Sustainable Practices: Growing Ecological and Racial Diversity in Alternative Agrifood Spaces." Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems, 2020.
- Sbicca, J., Minkoff-Zern, L. and Coopwood, S., "“Because they are connected”: Linking structural inequalities in farmworker organizing." Human Geography, 2020.