Seeds of Change harvest: The gratification of seeing the wonderful work of GRIT graduates – Ann Tickamyer (Penn State)

During the Seeds of Change conference, we approached several personalities from the ‘Gender in Agriculture’ crowd to interview them on their work, on their insights about the conference and their outlook on the next frontiers of our field of research. Find an overview of all conference related outputs here.

In this interview, we are featuring Ann Tickamyer, Professor of Rural Sociology at the Department of Agricultural Economics, Sociology, and Education of Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences. Ann reflects back on the conference, the wider gender domain and opportunities for Penn State and CGIAR to collaborate.

What is exciting and/or challenging about this conference, its contents and the fact that for the first time the CGIAR community is also mixing up with the wider ‘GenderInAg’ community?

All the parties who engage in this type of work – from academia, CGIAR, (international) non-governmental organizations (NGOs/INGOs) etc. have a tendency to become insular, to focus on and engage primarily with their own communities and colleagues. This conference brought together scholars from many different communities in sufficient numbers to have a critical mass from each and exposed all of us to a great variety of perspectives, issues, and new research.

What do you see as one of the ‘next frontiers’ of gender in agriculture research in the next few years?

Hearing about ‘hot topics‘ and learning about the latest directions for scholarship, including but not limited to masculinities, feminist perspectives, the current meanings and goals for gender research (e.g. transformative approaches), keynotes, especially Kabeer’s, and the variety of formal presentations and informal discussions.

What are you currently working and what are you contemplating as your next area of focus/piece of work?

I continue to work on the Women’s Agricultural Network (WAgN) Cambodia research looking at gender and sustainable intensification in Cambodian horticulture and a chapter for the forthcoming Handbook on gender and agriculture edited by Sachs, Sexsmith, and Jensen on feminist methodology. Next up is returning to ongoing research on gender, resilience, and climate change in Indonesia.

What excites you about gender capacity development, what are new directions you’re following and what do you see as the key opportunities for collaboration with CGIAR on this?

It’s exciting to see so many scholars from so many different backgrounds, projects, and places converging to address critical issues in gender, agriculture, and development.  It’s also very gratifying to see so many current and former postdocs from the Gender Research Integrated Training (GRIT) program and the wonderful work they are doing.