CRC Newsletter: Summer 2023

Building on a decade of community-engaged geospatial research the CRC is pleased to announce the launch of ResilienceLink, our new integrative online hub for maps, data, published research, and other tools to support our community partners in West Virginia and beyond. ResilienceLink will host all of the CRC’s databases, mapping applications and project outputs going forward so anyone with a web browser can easily access what they need. Community partners who are concerned with food insecurity, healthcare deserts, water quality and more will have access to our map portals. Moreover, you can learn more about ongoing projects of the CRC led by students and community partners. Check out ResilienceLink here.

“ResilienceLink not only showcases the potential of community GIS but serves as a HUB for advocacy work, classrooms, or community conversations. The data, mapping portals and projects in ResilienceLink are rooted in years of community-engaged research that we are trying to make available in one place. While building the website we spent considerable time thinking about the pathways in which people in Appalachia access information to support their work. We hope ResilienceLink will grow with our partners as we build a learning portal and a tool for change.” - Grace Dever, Community GIS Coordinator

The CRC’s fourth cohort of Sustainable Development Interns (SDIs) wrapped up another exciting Spring semester working on action research projects with our community partners. Twenty students completed the program in Spring 2023. Learn more about the SDI teams by exploring the StoryMaps of their projects on regional food systems , flood preparedness , cooperative economies , and the right to food !

In May 2023, CRC Director Bradley Wilson returned to Cali, Colombia for the second year to continue learning from and collaborating with FUNDAEC on their new community food system change pilot project called Growing Hope. For almost 50 years, FUNDAEC (Fundación para la Aplicación y Enseñanza de las Ciencias), a non-profit educational and research institution based in Cali, Colombia, has worked with rural communities around the world to increase the capacity of local populations to promote the well-being of their own communities, particularly through agroecological practices. Internationally recognized for its innovative approach to development education, FUNDAEC has dedicated itself to generating and systematizing knowledge through action research and the application of new learning in educational programs that promote regenerative agriculture, local economic development, environmental conservation and rural education projects in association with community groups and partner organizations in Latin America, Africa and Asia. Growing Hope builds from these many years of endeavor and deep ties in the region to focus on Norte de Cauca, the birthplace of FUNDAEC. Learn more about FUNDAEC here.

In 2022, the UN FAO identified Colombia as one of the twenty hot spots experiencing acute hunger in the world. According to official statistics, 64% of households in the Department of Cauca,, experiences food insecurity, one of the highest rates in Colombia and the world. During the last five decades, agriculture in Norte de Cauca, Colombia, has been transformed by the extensive development of sugarcane monocultures that have displaced ancestral indigenous, Afro-Colombian, and agroecological production methods. Sugar has not only transformed the social and environmental landscape of Norte de Cauca, its consumption is one of the main causes of diet-related diseases and its production is a key contributor to ongoing carbon emissions and anthropogenic climate change. 

Dr. Wilson is collaborating with a team of action researchers led by the Center for Research in Education for Development and FUNDAEC to document and systematize the learning unfolding on small farms, schools, community organization and experimental plots throughout the project. 

The Appalachian Food Justice Institute (AFJI) and associated Farm and Food Hub internship is a collaborative educational program hosted by the WVU Center for Resilient Communities, and its community partners in West Virginia. Now in its fifth year, AFJI prepares student leaders to meaningfully engage in local and regional food system development bringing lessons from social movements advancing food sovereignty and the right to food across the world to the small farm networks and community food security work currently underway in the Appalachian context. This summer AFJI offered a ten-week internship experience, along with the weeklong educational program, for students engaged with food system work. This internship provided hands-on experience with food and farm organizations concerned with advancing equitable food networks in Appalachia. Interns were placed with Mountain Harvest Farm, Garrett Growers, and the WVU Urban Farm and worked with various other farms and organizations through direct work days, field trips, and discussions. This year Dylan Upperman (AFJI alum 2022) served as the program coordinator. Dr. Joshua Lohnes led the intensive training seminar and Fritz Boettner led both internship placements and organized a range of exciting field school experiences. 

“AFJI and the Food and Farm Internship offered passionate students the ability to directly work with and learn from community partners engaged in the food system in West Virginia and beyond. Over the course of ten weeks of direct work and a weeklong learning program, the experience gained, knowledge and skills developed, and relationships built with community members through this internship have proven to be invaluable for both me and the interns with whom I worked closely this summer.” - Dylan Upperman

Learn more about AFJI 2023 through our interactive Story Map!

In late June 2023, the CRC hosted a two week in-person summer school at WVU while connecting others around the world in nodes based in Norway (Norwegian University of Science and Technology), Aotearoa New Zealand (Massey University), European Union online (University of Munich), Australia online (Uni. of Newcastle, AUS). Dr. Bradley Wilson co-facilitated the seminar with one of his research mentors Dr. Kevin St. Martin (Rutgers University) who also joined us at WVU. Doctoral students Cameron Rishworth and Valentina Muraleedharan also attended as a means of gaining additional training and advancing their doctoral research.

The CEI summer school was an accessible and dynamic means to explore the discourse of community and solidarity economies with a diverse group of scholars from various fields and backgrounds. The concepts and conversations  raised questions and added dimension to my on-going dissertation research. It was an incredibly valuable experience as I gained knowledge and skill in my capacity to think differently and contribute meaningfully to this discourse. - Valentina Muraleedharan, Ph.D. Candidate, Geography

It was a great opportunity to be a part of the CEI summer school, particularly being able to learn alongside people like Jenny Cameron and Katherine Gibson who have been at the forefront of creatively examining economic practices beyond capitalism for decades. The institute is a great resource and network of support as I continue to learn about cooperatives and solidarity economies as a part of my PhD dissertation and possible future endeavors. - Cameron Rishworth, Ph.D. Student, Geography

In total some 50 scholars participated in the program, now in its second year. The Community Economies Institute summer school offers PhD students, early career researchers and others the opportunity to explore these questions with advanced scholars who have been thinking outside or beyond capitalist relations since the publication of J.K. Gibson-Graham’s The End of Capitalism (As We Knew It): A Feminist Critique of Political Economy in 1996. The summer school engages with the foundational concepts and tools that community economies scholars use to envision and enact diverse, alternative economies. It explores connections with longer traditions that also value collectivity and interdependence. Some of the questions that guided conversation included: What role can scholarship play in making other worlds possible? What capacities do we have as scholars to shape the world? What ethical responsibilities and earthly cares come with this work? How are we navigating these questions in our own research? 

Nkatha Mercy, a PhD candidate in the Department of Geology and Geography and Community Engaged Research Assistant in CRC has been selected by the American Association of Geographers to participate in its Elevate the Discipline program. Elevate the Discipline will train an inaugural cohort of geographers over the next several months in leadership, media skills and policy strategies. The cohort will use the training to discuss their research in the media, as voices for public policies and in advocating for change around the theme of climate and society. Learn more here. Nkatha writes: "I am grateful for the opportunity to be part of CRC’s research and learning that engenders community resilience. Linking community, research, policy and media is useful for showcasing higher education's contribution to sustainable development. This, especially so, in this day of anthropogenic climate change."

Grace Dever joins the staff as our new Community GIS coordinator for the CRC. Grace has transitioned into a full-time position from her previous graduate research role. This summer Grace has played a central part in the development of ResilienceLink and advancing the Community GIS program. Grace writes: "I am so thrilled to continue to work at the CRC as the Community GIS Coordinator. I started at the CRC as a GIS undergraduate research assistant in 2019 and have had the opportunity to engage in varying research projects such as food access, water insecurity, and flood risk. As a full-time staff member, I look forward to building a community GIS program and providing similar pathways for students and community members to participate in our collaborative research planning. I love being a part of this community. I am eager to continue learning and working with others to promote mapping as a means of advancing policy and social change."

Calling all former students and alumni of WVU, the CRC, Food Justice Lab, Firsthand, Fair Trade 2.0 and more. We are very excited to host our first annual homecoming gathering on Friday, October 20, 2023. We are planning an open house for all of our friends starting at 9:00am-11:30 pm with music, coffee and refreshments. At 2:00 pm the CRC will tell a story from our 10+ years of learning in honor of all the students, staff and friends who contributed to this collective work. At this event we will also announce and introduce our newest cohort of Sustainable Development interns and share our plans for 2024 and beyond.  Register for our CRC Homecoming Event here.