Project Description: 

In the last decade, many U.S. “land-grant” agricultural universities (including UC Berkeley) have turned a reflexive lens on the fact that their institutions marginalize certain community members. These schools have begun to ask how inequities within their food and agriculture education perpetuate food systems injustices in the U.S. more broadly. This research project critically evaluates these nascent institutional efforts by examining how agriculture schools use pedagogical practices to improve equity and inclusion outcomes. Coursework descriptions offer a key insight into the pedagogical methods and types of food systems topics in use at land-grant universities. This project aims to create the first comprehensive database of coursework content at all land-grant institutions. This database will be the first effort in the U.S. to 1) track all recent food and agriculture classes across the land-grant system, and 2) specifically identify pedagogical methods and food justice content. Through content analysis of land-grant university coursework this project seeks to answer the following questions:

● Which land-grant universities—and how many—currently offer courses that 1) utilize critical pedagogical methods, and/or 2) explicitly discuss food systems equity as part of their curriculum?

● What are the characteristics of the critical, equity-oriented food systems curriculum at land-grant universities?

Department: 
ESPM
Undergraduate's Role: 

We are looking for 2 undergraduate students to join the project team. Students will apply their knowledge of food systems and critical thinking skills to closely read online course catalogues and extract data for food and agriculture classes. The students will be working in tandem with a team of data science students who are using web scraping and keyword lists to extract initial data. The SPUR team will be reading each line of the initial data for further refinement and to code for food justice/equity and pedagogical practices. As this project involves high attention to detail and many hours of data extraction, students should be excited to perform this kind of work (which is very common in the research world!).

Undergraduate's Qualifications: 

• Work well both independently as well as in a team

• Highly organized and with strong time management skills

• Extremely detail-oriented (this project is keenly dependent on this skill)

• Ability to use Google spreadsheets and Excel

• Curiosity and innovation 

• Outstanding oral and written communication skills, particularly in regards to communications across diverse groups

• Comfort with asking questions and seeking help when needed

• Professionalism, courtesy, punctuality, and good humor 

• Familiarity with analysis of food systems and structural barriers to equity and inclusion

• Interest and experience in food systems research, education, public service, and activism

Location: 
Remote
Hours: 
6-9 hours