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Personal Summary

I am a scholar-activist who has worked in the ÁÔÆæÖØ¿Ú’s Environmental Studies Program (EVST) since 2000. My fundamental interest is in the theory and practice of social change with respect to solving our urgent environmental and social problems. My academic training is complemented by years of involvement in the non-profit sector, as well as my civic participation in local and state government.

My areas of interest and teaching include: 

• The ecological and social consequences of the US industrial agri-food system, and the concentration of economic power among agribusinesses.
• Food democracy and the creation of sustainable agri-food systems with meaningful opportunities for participation at local and regional scales.
• Agroecology, regenerative agriculture, and management-intensive rotational grazing.
• Sustainable community development (e.g., land use planning, farmland conservation, local economies).
• Environmental and agricultural policy (e.g., pesticides, organic standards, water pollution, agricultural biotechnology).
• Organizational and leadership skills that prepare students to be effective change agents.
• Theories and practice of transformative, adult education.
• Qualitative social scientific methods and community-based action research.

Teaching and mentoring:  As a professor, I aim to support students’ discovery of their sense of purpose. I see my role as helping students pursue their own paths to engaging in environmental and social problem solving. Learn more about my pedagogical approach at: .

Within EVST, I coordinate our emphasis area on sustainable food and farming. Our students have contributed to a variety of regional food and agricultural initiatives through research, internships, and projects. These are excellent opportunities to learn-by-doing and be involved in community-based action research. See partial list of partners below.

Current projects:  I am currently working on a book manuscript, Storied Foodscapes: Place and Possibility in ÁÔÆæÖØ¿Ú. Also, I am a business partner in Corner Farm Village LLC, which is doing a farmland conservation development project on the edge of Missoula.

Learn more about my work:  

Interview on The Trail Less Traveled podcast:  https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-trail-less-traveled/id1180249343?i=1000615722189 

Partial list of organizational partners:

Campus Agriculture

Farm to College Program

Education

Ph.D.,1997, Land Resources, Institute for Environmental Studies, University of Wisconsin - Madison

M.S.,1989, Environmental Studies Program, University of Oregon

B.A., 1985 Environmental Studies and Government, St. Lawrence University

Courses Taught

• ENST 225 – Sustainable Communities (formerly: Community and Environment)
• ENST 480 – Food, Justice, and Sustainability (formerly: Food, Agriculture, and the Environment)
• ENST 519 – Foundations of Change 
• ENST 520 – Environmental Organizing
• ENST 555 – Research Methods for Social Change
• ENST 580 – The Politics of Food
• EVST 594 – Assessing the ÁÔÆæÖØ¿Ú Food System

Research Interests

Current projects:  I am currently working on a book manuscript, Storied Foodscapes: Place and Possibility in ÁÔÆæÖØ¿Ú (University of Nebraska Press). Also, I am a business partner in Corner Farm Village LLC, which is doing a farmland conservation development project on the edge of Missoula.

Projects

TEDxUÁÔÆæÖØ¿Ú: "Cultivating Food Democracy" with Mark LoParco (2013)

Field of Study

Environmental Studies; Agri-food Studies; Rural and Agricultural Sociology; Community and Land Use Planning; Farmland Protection; Food Democracy; Food Sovereignty

Publications

Berglund, Erika, Neva Hassanein, Paul LaChapelle, and Caroline Stephens. 2021. Advancing food democracy: The potential and limits of food policy positions in local government.  Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development.  11(1), 81–98. https://doi.org/10.5304/jafscd.2021.111.002

Plotkin, Samuel Ethan and Neva Hassanein. 2017. Cultivating opportunity: Do land transfer tools improve land access for beginning farmers? Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems, 1-9. doi:10.1017/S1742170517000539

Hassanein, Neva, Laura Ginsburg, Kimberly Gilchrist, Caroline Stephens, and Eva Rocke, editors.  2013.  Local Is Delicious, But It’s Not Always Easy:  A Case Study of the Western ÁÔÆæÖØ¿Ú Growers Cooperative.  ÁÔÆæÖØ¿Ú, Environmental Studies:  Missoula.  

Hubbard, Kristina and Neva Hassanein.  2013.  Confronting coexistence in the United States:  Organic agriculture, genetic engineering, and the case of Roundup Ready® alfalfa.   Agriculture and Human Values 30(3): 325-336.  DOI 10.1007/s10460-012-9394-6

Hassanein, Neva.  2011.  Matters of scale and the politics of the Food Safety Modernization Act.  Presidential Address, presented at the 2011 Annual meeting of the Agriculture Food, and Human Values Society, held at the ÁÔÆæÖØ¿Ú, June 2011.  Agriculture and Human Values 28:577-581.

Hubbard, Paul and Neva Hassanein.  2010.  Losing Ground:  The Future of Farms and Food in Missoula County.  Missoula, MT:  Community Food and Agriculture Coalition.

Hassanein, Neva.  2008.  Locating food democracy:  Theoretical and practical ingredients.  Journal of Hunger and Environmental Nutrition 3(2-3): 286-308.

Kloppenburg, Jack and Neva Hassanein.  2006.  From old school to reform school?  Agriculture and Human Values 23(4): 417-421.

Hassanein, Neva.  2003.  Practicing food democracy:  A pragmatic politics of transformation.  Journal of Rural Studies 19(1):77-86.

Hassanein, Neva.  2000.  Democratizing agricultural knowledge through sustainable farming networks.  Chap. 3 in Science, Technology, and Democracy.  Edited by Daniel Lee Kleinman.  Albany:  SUNY Press.

Hassanein, Neva.  1999.  Changing the Way America Farms:  Knowledge and Community in the Sustainable Agriculture Movement.  Lincoln:  University of Nebraska Press.

Hassanein, Neva.  1997.  Networking knowledge in the sustainable agriculture movement:  Some implications of the gender dimension.  Society and Natural Resources 10(2):251-257.

Hassanein, Neva, and Jack Kloppenburg, Jr.  1995.  Where the grass grows again:  Knowledge exchange in the sustainable agriculture movement.  Rural Sociology 60(4):721-740.

Specialized Skills

Cultural Humility: Community of Practice, Indigenous Vision. March 2022 (4-Part Virtual Series). 

Facilitation and Training Approaches for Community Change, Certificate, Coady International Institute, St. Francis Xavier University, Antigonish, NS, Canada, October 13-31, 2014.  

Community-Driven Health Impact Assessment, Coady International Institute, St. Francis Xavier University, Antigonish, NS, Canada, November 3-11, 2014.

Social Change and Participatory Research.  Fielding Graduate Institute workshop at the Highlander Research and Education Center, New Market, TN, August 21-25, 2002.

Environmental Leadership Institute.  The League of Conservation Voters, July 16-20, 2001.

Negotiate to Win.  Cooper Management Institute.  Two-day training, 2000.

Running Electoral Campaigns.  Community Strategic Training Initiative, Western States Center, Portland, OR.  Two-day training, 1997.

Focus Group Interviewing.  Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison.  Two-day training, 1994.

Organizing for Social Change in the 1990s.  Si Kahn of Grassroots Leadership, Madison, WI. One-day training,1994.

Principles of Community Organizing. Western Organization of Resource Councils, Billings, MT, Five-day training, 1990.

Professional Experience

I have worked both professionally and as a volunteer for non-profit organizations and in local government as a citizen-volunteer. I co-founded the Community Food and Agriculture Coalition (CFAC) and Grow ÁÔÆæÖØ¿Ú in 2005. and served as a leader for each for many years. Other boards I have served on include:  Wild Farm Alliance; ÁÔÆæÖØ¿Ú Conservation Voters; Alternative Energy Resource Council; and Agriculture, Food, and Human Values Society. Also, I served on the Missoula City - County Consolidated Planning Board for six years, and was a member of the Steering Committee for the Our Missoula Growth Policy (2015).  From 1997-2000, I coordinated a broad-based effort to pass a law securing the public's right to know about pesticide use in Oregon for the Northwest Center for Alternatives to Pesticides.  I was a community organizer and a lobbyist for the Northern Plains Resource Council (1989-1991).

Honors / Awards

• Excellence in Public Service Award, Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society, (2019)
• Faculty Greening UM Award, Sustainable Campus Committee, (2019)
• Don Aldrich Award for longtime contributions to the conservation of natural resources & environmental protection, Missoula Conservation Roundtable (2015)
• Distinguished Alumni Award, Gaylord Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, University of Wisconsin--Madison (2015)
• Residency, Playa, Summer Lake, Oregon (2015)
• Artsmith Scholar of the Year (2013)
• Sustainable Agriculture Education Award, Alternative Energy Resources Organization, ÁÔÆæÖØ¿Ú (2005)
• Helen and Winthrop Cox Award for Excellence in Teaching, College of Arts and Sciences, ÁÔÆæÖØ¿Ú (2005)
• Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Award for Campus-Community Partnerships to Environmental Studies' Program in Ecological Agriculture and Society (PEAS) and Garden City Harvest, with Josh Slotnick (2004)

Hobbies

In my free time, I enjoy gardening, sharing food with friends, hunting wild mushrooms, raising urban chickens, and exploring the natural world on x-country skis, foot, and canoe.