The University of ϱ, Reno’s Department of Gender, Race and Identity (GRI) will address the topic of “Food Security and Racial Justice” with two upcoming events on Sept. 15 and Sept. 24.
The events are part of a yearlong series funded by the American Council of Learned Societies and organized by GRI to address the broad theme of “Community-Based Knowledges and Visions for Racial, Health and Climate Justice.”
“Our project pursues an ambitious agenda of publicly engaged humanities scholarship and programming, fostering ties across our university and the wider community,” Lydia Huerta, assistant professor of Gender, Race and Identity, said.
To kick off this month’s events, GRI will host a panel of community and campus speakers from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 15, at the University’s Wells Fargo Auditorium. The panel includes community farming experts Lilith Baran of Hampton House Garden Project, Jill Moe of the Desert Farming Initiative, Lance Owyhee of the Food Sovereignty Project and Earstin Whitten of Soulful Seeds.
“The panel will discuss questions of food security, sustainable rural and urban farming, food distribution to houseless communities, the indigenous food sovereignty project, and practices of mutual aid,” Prisca Gayles, assistant professor of Gender, Race and Identity and Sociology, said.
To continue the conversation, GRI will host a tour and harvest day at the Desert Farming Initiative, from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 24. The event will include a tour outlining DFI's project work on food sovereignty and security, a hands-on farm activity and group discussion.
GRI will be hosting numerous events throughout the year. Each month will focus on a specific topic:
- September 2022: Food Security and Racial Justice
- October 2022: Indigenous Knowledge for Climate Justice
- November 2022: What is Health Justice
- February 2023: The Pandemic – Where Are We Now?
- March 2023: Decolonizing the Outdoors
- April 2023: Visions of Change
