The Graduate Program and Sustainable Agriculture invites you to join us for:

"Envisioning the Future of Sustainable Agriculture through the Arts and Humanities"

a panel session featuring Dr. Shuyang Qu, Dr. Charissa Menefee, Dr. Katherine Dentzmen, and Professor Alex Braidwood

Envisioning the Future of Sustainable Agriculture through the Arts and Humanities Video (Echo360)

Panelists: 

Alex Braidwood is a sound artist, media designer, and educator who maintains a practice exploring issues of sustainability at the intersection of art and science. He has exhibited art, led workshops, lectured on his work, and performed live at a variety of events and venues throughout the US, Europe, Asia, and Australia. He has been an artist in residence in an Australian mountain village, on an Iowa farm, at a mid-western biological field research station, and on Isle Royale National Park. Alex is currently Director of the Artist-in-Residence program at Iowa Lakeside Lab biological field research station, Associate Professor in the College of Design, and faculty in the Human Computer Interaction program at Iowa State University. He also currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Midwest Society for Acoustic Ecology and the World Forum for Acoustic Ecology.

Dr. Katherine Dentzman earned her B.A. as a double major in Environmental Science and Sociology at Central Michigan University and both her M.A. and Ph.D. in Sociology with a specialization in Ecological Food and Farming Systems at Michigan State University. After graduation she held multiple USDA-funded postdoctoral research associate positions at both Washington State University and University of Idaho, followed by a position with the USDA's National Institute of Food and Agriculture as a Social Science Program Specialist. 

Dr. Dentzman specializes in transdisciplinary agri-food research at the intersection of environmental and social sustainability. Using mixed methods designs and a grounding in critical theory, she has contributed a unique sociological perspective to nearly a dozen separate research teams. 

She is broadly interested in 'unbelonging' and community in agri-food systems, particularly focusing on the implications for conjoint dimensions of sustainability.  Her work has advanced an understanding of the human dimensions of herbicide resistance issues in agriculture, for which she has numerous publications, invited presentations, grant funding, and committee positions. She has also applied theories of good farming, place attachment, and intersectionality to study the pathways and barriers to success in agriculture faced by women and LGBTQ+ farmers. 

Dr. Charissa Menefee is a playwright, poet, and director. She is a 2020/2021 recipient of an Ensemble Studio Theatre/Sloan Foundation Science & Technology Project Commission, and she is the founder and artistic director of The EcoTheatre Lab. She has been a Tennessee Williams Scholar in Playwriting at the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, a finalist for the Julie Harris Playwright Award, and a writer-in-residence with the Utah Shakespeare Festival's New American Playwrights Project and Fairhope Center for the Writing Arts. Her scripts have been honored by the Pandora Festival of New Plays, American College Theatre Festival, Arizona Theatre Conference, Scriptapalooza, Christian H. Moe Awards, and City of Charleston Literary Arts Awards, among others. At Iowa State, she co-coordinates the MFA Program in Creative Writing & Environment, teaches courses in English and Theatre, and is currently directing Climate Change Theatre Action 2021. 

Dr. Shuyang Qu is an assistant professor in the Agricultural Education and Studies Department. The goal of her research program is to enhance communication among producers, agri-scientists, consumers and communicators through strategic digital media communication. One of her research program focuses is to investigate mass media's portrayal of agriculture and its influence on its audiences about agriculture. The other focus is to test the communication strategies that producers, agri-scientists and communicators could use to better their communication in its cultural and societal scenarios with the target audiences, especially from digital media perspective.