ayana curran-howes
activist, scholar, artist, post-capitalist imaginary based in Burlington, Vermont
I have a BA in Biology from William Jewell College, and a MS in Environment and Sustainability and a Museum Studies Certificate from from the University of Michigan. Previously, I conducted community based ecological restoration at a conservation nonprofit in Kansas City, Heartland Conservation Alliance. With my newfound focus on food systems I have worked for the Sustainability Food Systems Initiative, Matthaei Botanical Gardens with heritage seeds, and the Washtenaw County Health Department addressing local food access. I worked for the Henry Ford Museum to develop programming and establish historical context for the re-creation of the Central Market to teach visitors about the food system in this working farm and museum.
Beyond UVM, I hope to work to design, curate, and conduct research in outdoor "living museums" (e.g., farms deploying agritourism, botanical gardens, public parks) alongside farmers to educate and instigate this agroecological transition. My interests outside of research include local labor organizing, hiking with my dog, cooking, and creating in various mediums.
CURRENT RESEARCH INTERESTS
How do we craft a food system defined by community, reciprocity, and abundance instead of exploitation and commodification of the "other"? What might this post-capitalist future look like if crafted by peasants and agroecological farmers? The ‘other’ in question here is “the colonized and the enslaved, the marginalized and the non‐citizen, the woman and the animal—which all of them are made into Other than rational man” (Åsberg, 2008). In pursuit of this question I take a political ecology lens to investigate how agroecological farming and framing may facilitate counter-movements and counter-narratives to the agro-industrial model of "othering" and/or perpetuate normalization of this exploitation, especially when it comes to other species. At the intersection of abolitionist veganic farming, agroecological movements and design, and storytelling/agritourism I explore what values and paradigms shape knowledge and relationships with farm animals within agroecology? How does increasing industrialization and technification mediate relationships with other species? What could alternative multispecies, pos-capitalist paradigms look like?
My research is as much about the methodological process, based on reciprocity, co-learning, and co-authorship, as it is about discerning and acting upon the results. I want to work on undoing the trauma caused by capitalism and policing of farmers and farmworkers, creating an anti-racist food system that values cultural food ways and food sovereignty. Through listening, creative communication, and collaboration, my ultimate goal is to learn from and uplift marginalized farmers in the literature and other outlets so we can collectively build a more just, nourishing, ecologically and culturally vibrant food system together.
Åsberg, C. (2008). A feminist companion to posthumanities. NORA: Nordic Journal of Feminist and Gender Research, 16(4), 264-269.
Want to collaborate on research, art, or writing? I look forward to hearing from you!
Latest Work
2021 - present
University of Vermont
Burlington, Vermont
Currently Working with Dan Tobin and Amy Trubek to create a measurement tool for assessing how social embeddedness affects small and medium scale farms' viability in Vermont. This is funded through the new USDA Agricultural Research Service.
If you want to support the work I am doing, community support can be sent to my venmo @ayana-curran-howes
