Chelsea Rozanski
Affiliations
Postdoctoral Research Associate
Sessional Instructor
Contact information
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Funding
Research and Community Engagement Grants
Background
Educational Background
Ph.D. Anthropology, University of Calgary, 2025
B.A. (Distinction) Anthropology, University of Delaware, 2014
B.A. Women and Gender Studies, University of Delaware, 2014
Biography
My research examines regenerative and community-based food systems, with a particular focus on relational foodways, land stewardship, and social cooperation. Using ethnographic and participatory methodologies grounded in critical agrarian studies and feminist political ecology, my work explores how alternative agrarian communities navigate sustainability, justice, and decolonial governance. I have conducted fieldwork in Canada, Peru, and Panama and engaged in agroecological initiatives across Latin America, Africa, Asia, Europe, and North America. My doctoral research was supported by a SSHRC Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship and a P.E.O. International Endowed Scholarship. I previously served a five-year term as Convener of the Calgary Institute for the Humanities Food Studies Interdisciplinary Research Group and am a member of the Taylor Institute for Teaching and Learning Teaching Academy.
Research
Areas of Research
Agroecology; Alternative Food Networks; Food Sovereignty; Political Economy of Food; Regenerative Agriculture; Relational Foodways; Seed Saving; Urban Agriculture.
Care Economies; Cultural Heritage; Feminist Political Ecology; Gendered Environmental Knowledge; Intersectionality; Land, Labor, and Power; Rematriation.
Collaborative Ethnography; Community-Based Participatory Research; Indigenous and Land-Based Methods; Knowledge Co-Production; Participatory Action Research.
Participation in university strategic initiatives
Courses
| Course number | Course title | Semester |
|---|---|---|
| DEST 201 | Introduction to Global Development Studies | Winter 2026, F25, P23 |
| ANTH 321 | Ethnographic Overview of Latin America | Winter 2026, F22 |
| ANTH 203 | Introduction to Social and Cultural Anthropology | Spring 2025, W25, P24 |
| DEST 401 | Advanced Topics: Development and Decolonization in Latin America | Fall 2024 |
Projects
This community-based participatory research project is in partnership with Guardians of Sacred Lands, a Blackfoot-led non-profit dedicated to protecting sacred landscapes and intergenerational knowledge. The project examines the intersections of Indigenous food sovereignty, cultural heritage, and land stewardship through collaborative research, Indigenous methodologies, and community-led priorities. Current activities include relationship-building, ethical governance, partnership development, and the co-creation of initiatives that support Indigenous stewardship, cultural continuity, and knowledge mobilization across Treaty 7 Territory.
This project draws on long-term ethnographic and participatory research with regenerative farmers in Southern Alberta to examine how alternative agrarian communities navigate sustainability, cooperation, and land stewardship within an agro-industrial context. Grounded in critical agrarian studies and feminist political ecology, the research explores relational foodways, seed saving, and collective governance as both practical and political responses to ecological crisis and extractive agriculture.
Based on ethnographic research with camelid pastoralist communities in the Bolivian Andes, this project examines agroecological diversification as a form of resistance to market volatility, environmental precarity, and development pressures. The study highlights Aymara land-use practices, pastoral mobility, and collective knowledge systems that sustain livelihoods while challenging dominant development paradigms.
This research investigates the subsistence strategies and territorial governance of the Ese’Eja people of the Peruvian Amazon in the context of conservation policy and extractive development. Using a political ecology framework, the project documents how cultural preservation, ecological knowledge, and land rights are actively negotiated through everyday food and livelihood practices.
This collaborative research explores how transnational partnerships support agroecological resilience and cooperative governance in communities located within UNESCO La Amistad Biosphere Reserve transition zones (Panama–Costa Rica). The project examines tensions between food sovereignty initiatives and extractive development, with particular attention to governance dynamics, institutional actors, and community-led responses to environmental change.
Awards
- Transdisciplinary Connector Grant: Initiating Stream, Institutes for Transdisciplinary Scholarship, University of Calgary. 2026
- Post PhD Research Grant, Wenner-Gren Foundation. 2026
- Teaching Award for Sessional Instructors, University of Calgary. 2026
- Leadership & Citizenship Awards, UCalgary Graduate Students' Association. 2025
- Endowed Scholar, P.E.O. International. 2024
- Frances Spratt Graduate Student Resident Fellowship, Calgary Institute of the Humanities. 2022
- Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. 2021
- Alberta Graduate Excellence Scholarship- International, University of Calgary. 2020
Publications
- Cooperation as Resistance: The Role of Social Relations in Alberta’s Regenerative Farming Movement. Rozanski, C.. Food, Culture & Society. 1–23. (2026)
- Where the Wild Rose Blooms: A Phenology of Grounded Writing. Rozanski, C.. Anthropology and Humanism. (2026)
- Pluralism in Practice: Creative Assessment for Deep, Inclusive, and Joyful Learning. Rozanski, C., & Hackl, V.. ImaginingSoTL. (2026)
- The Prefigurative and Settler-Colonial Politics of Relational Commons: Ethnographic insights from an urban grower collective in Alberta. Rozanski, C., & Rodriguez, S. H.. Commoning Ethnography. 7-27. (2025)
- Relational Foodways in Wild Rose Country: The Pathways, Pitfalls, and Politics of Regenerative Farming in an Agro-Industrial Complex. Rozanski, C.. https://prism.ucalgary.ca. (2025)
- Navigating the Rockies of Academia through Collective Care. Rozanski, C., Awan, L., & Gordon, M.. Building Community Through Collaborative Learning, Taylor Institute for Teaching and Learning Guide Series. 29-36. (2025)
- Calls to Action: Co-Creating a Horizontal Teaching and Learning Environment. Rozanski, C., Rodriguez, S. H., Albright, S., Presiloski, A., Wolfe, K., & Faunt, M.. Students as Partners in Higher Education: Perspectives and Practices, Taylor Institute for Teaching and Learning Guide Series. 39-46. (2024)
- Growing in Relation with the Land: Experiential Learning of Root and Regenerate Urban Farms. Rozanski, C. & Gavin, M.. Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development. 1-20. (2023)
- Reflective Weavings of a Knowledge Basket: Farming and Re-Searching in Wild Rose Country. Rozanski, C.. McGill Graduate Journal of Anthropology Collective Research in Anthropology. (2023)
- Food Pedagogy for Transformative Social Change. Rozanski, C. & Samar, G. K.. Canadian Food Studies Journal/ La Revue Canadienne Des études Sur l’alimentation. (2021)
- From Seed to Social Agency. Rozanski, C. & Samar, G. K.. Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development. 37-41. (2021)
- Engagement at the Intersection of Community and Academia. Rozanski, C.. Incorporating Universal Design for Learning in Disciplinary Contexts in Higher Education, Taylor Institute for Teaching and Learning Guide Series. 17-21. (2021)
- Through a Lens of Connection. Rozanski, C.. PlatForum Journal of Graduate Students in Anthropology. 6-24. (2020)
In the News
- Office Hours Segment. MyUCalgary. (2026)
- Calgary's Community Gardens. Calgary Journal. (2025)
- Urban Farming Apprenticeship. Young Agrarians. (2021)
- Harvests Throughout History. Podcast: Pertaining to People. (2021)
- Non-profit Farming. CBC Calgary. (2020)
- Food Access During Covid-19. The Gauntlet. (2020)
- Connected by a Thread: Undergraduate Research. University of Delaware UDaily Newspaper. (2017)
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