Monica White — Nelson Institute Gaylord A. Nelson Distinguished Chair in Integrated Environmental Studies, and the founding director of the Office for Environmental Justice in the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies — has been awarded a prestigious Andrew Carnegie Fellowship.
“Food. Food is where it all comes together: justice, climate change, water quality, urban livability. What Monica White has done on food is to not only restore its rich history, but to show how it thrives now. Her work on the relationship between social progress and tilling the soil has shown how Black communities carried agriculture from the deep south to the north, to places where we all know, like Milwaukee and Detroit. But she’s also shown that this is where farming remains today, doing positive social work, building communities, cleaning the land, the soil, and the air. If there is a reason to honor a scholar with a Carnegie, that pretty much is it,” said Nelson Institute Dean Paul Robbins.
The Carnegie Fellowships provide distinguished scholars in the social sciences and humanities the support they need to complete important research in their fields. White’s research focuses on Black, Indigenous and Latinx community-based food systems that provide food security, sovereignty, and social solidarity.