Natasha Shannon is a PhD candidate in Society & Environment in the Environmental Science, Policy, and Management department. Her dissertation research examines different agricultural rural development strategies in Central Appalachia, especially those falling under the banners of AgTech and regenerative agriculture. Situated in the broader context of a “just transition” for the region, her work analyzes the labor and agricultural practices of these two approaches and also untangles their varying financial and social networks, with a specific focus on the influence, involvement, and impacts of right-wing investments in AgTech and agricultural movements in the region. Natasha’s research draws on political ecology, critical agrarian studies, and rural sociology as well as qualitative mixed methods, including in-depth, semi-structured interviews; participant observation; archival research; census data review; and content and discourse analysis. Her background as the daughter of farmers in rural southwest Virginia further informs her work and ethnographic methods.
Department and Institution:
Environmental Science, Policy, and Management, UC Berkeley
Bio/CV:
