Nourishing Resilience in Agri-food Systems in Asia through Sustainable and Equitable Practices

A/Prof Sarah Wright, Prof Gavin Jack (Monash University) and Dr Jagjit Plahe (Monash University)

CURS researchers have a long-term engagement with networks of small-scale farmers and Indigenous people in Asia, including the Philippines, Vietnam and India. Work in this area explores the ontological dimensions of human-environmental relationships, including cultural understandings of food and climate, in ways that are deeply engaged and collaborative. It aims to nourish international critical development that is people-led, place-based, and attends to culture and affect. Such knowledge is critical for developing contextually relevant climate policies and responses at local, regional, national and international scales. Specific projects have included emotional geographies of climate change in Panay, Philippines, people-led land struggles in Negros, Food Sovereignty in India, and, work with Indigenous Lumad communities in Mindanao.

Critical Pedagogies

Dr Paul Hodge, Professor Sarah Wright, Dr Lara Daley

This research focus makes contributions in critical pedagogy in development studies. The research explores experiential student learning when ‘on-Country’ with traditional custodians in the Northern Territory (Hodge et al 2011; Wright &Hodge, 2012; Hodge, Wright, Mozeley,2014). As part of an ARC Linkage Grant (July 2016-2021), Paul, Sarah and Lara, along with Gumbaynggirr knowledge holders Aunty Shaa Smith and Neeyan Smith, the Jaliigirr Biodiversity Alliance and Gumbaynggirr Country, aim to explore ways in which Gumbaynggirr-led Caring forCountry practices could be used to educate students in their future professions. Paul has been drawing on the learnings from Aunty Shaa and Country to inform and guide pedagogies in the classroom.Gumbaynggirr custodian Bernard Kelly-Edwards and Awabakal, Kamilaroi and Mandandanji custodian Kevin Gavi Duncan is working with Paul to co-design a longitudinal project, student-centred study entitled, ‘Student co-learning with Country: place-based decolonising pedagogiesfor work/lifein a climate changing world’. The project aims to trace student learning over timewhen guided by Indigenous custodians and Country. The place-based pedagogies havemultiple feedback loops built into project implementation enabling iterative processes forculturally relevant place-based curricula.

Publications: 

Hodge, PB, Wright, SL, Barraket, J, Scott, M & Melville, R et al. 2011, ‘Revisiting ’how we learn’ in academia: Practice-based learning exchanges in three Australian universities’, Studies in Higher Education, vol. 36, pp. 167–183, doi:10.1080/03075070903501895.

Wright, S. & Hodge, P. 2012, ‘To be Transformed: Emotions in Cross-Cultural, Field-Based Learning in Northern Australia’, Journal of Geography in Higher Education, vol. 36, no. 3, pp.355-368.

Hodge, P., Wright, S. & Mozeley, F. 2014, ‘More-than-human theorising-Inclusive communities of practice in student practice-based learning’, (eds) J.Huisman and M.Tight in International Perspectives on Higher Education Research, vol. 10: Emerald, UK pp. 83-102.