Garrett M. Broad, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication Studies at Rowan University, and a member of the university's Catalysts for Sustainability initiative. His research and teaching explore connections between contemporary social movements, food systems, and digital media technology. He is the author of More Than Just Food: Food Justice and Community Change, as well as a variety of articles on food's relationship to environmental sustainability, economic equity, and the health of humans and nonhuman animals. An engaged scholar, Professor Broad writes for both academic and public audiences, and works to develop collaborative research projects with a variety of social change-focused organizations.
Professor Broad's publications can be found on Google Scholar. You can also visit his Academia.edu page or contact him directly for copies of published work. A full CV is here.
Food Justice and Community Change
The industrial food system has created a crisis in the United States that is characterized by abundant food for privileged citizens and “food deserts” for the historically marginalized. In response, food justice activists based in low-income communities of color have developed community-based solutions, arguing that activities like urban agriculture, nutrition education, and food-related social enterprises can drive systemic social change. Focusing on the work of several food justice groups—including Community Services Unlimited, a South Los Angeles organization founded as the nonprofit arm of the Southern California Black Panther Party—More Than Just Food explores the possibilities and limitations of this community-based approach. It offers a networked examination of the food justice movement in the age of the nonprofit industrial complex.
More Than Just Food highlights the powerful role that food can play in connecting communities, celebrating cultural histories, and establishing a more just society for all. Combining the rigor of a scholar and the passion of an activist, Garrett M. Broad offers both practical and theoretical contributions that will help the food justice movement continue to grow.
Community-based organizations throughout the country are working to promote health, equity and sustainability through urban food activism. More Than Just Food offers an in-depth investigation of the potential for such activism to achieve social and racial justice in Los Angeles and beyond. As a scholar-activist, Broad offers insightful suggestions for future movement organizing, media storytelling, and policy advocacy.
More Than Just Food is an utterly compelling and intellectually satisfying discussion of the historical and contemporary relevance of food justice concerns to any serious conversation about racism, community organizing, and social justice more generally. Garrett M. Broad has written a powerful account of how and why the politics of healthy food access and activism can shed new and valuable light on questions of inclusion, fairness, and inequality in an interconnected and neoliberal world.
With a commitment to scholar-activism, Professor Broad looks for opportunities to bridge theory and practice. He has co-organized festivals that bring together universities with local communities, developed participatory research partnerships to help nonprofit organizations demonstrate impact, and created websites for the purposes of popular education and translational research. Some of these notable collaborations include:
The Critical Media Project, an online teaching resource that features a wide range of annotated media artifacts, exploring the politics of identity across issues of race and ethnicity, class, gender and sexuality. The project was developed under the direction of Professor Alison Trope and in conjunction with students at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism.
Movement Alliance Project (previously Media Mobilizing Project), a Philadelphia-based organization that aims to build a media, education and organizing infrastructure that will cohere and amplify the growing movement to end poverty.
Nonhuman Rights Project (NhRP), non-profit legal organization dedicated to securing legal rights and protections for nonhuman animals.
A participatory evaluation research project conducted in collaboration with Media Mobilizing Project (MMP), a Philadelphia-based organization that aims to build a media, education and organizing infrastructure that will cohere and amplify the growing movement to end poverty. A report detailing the findings of this initiative is forthcoming in 2016.
The development of The Critical Media Project, an online teaching resource that features a wide range of annotated media artifacts, exploring the politics of identity across issues of race and ethnicity, class, gender and sexuality. The project was developed under the direction of Professor Alison Trope and in conjunction with students at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism.
The creation of MetaConnects, an online space for knowledge sharing between communication researchers and community-based practitioners. The initiative was formed as the community-based research arm of the Metamorphosis Project, an urban communication research project led by Professor Sandra J. Ball-Rokeach.
A participatory evaluation research project conducted in collaboration with Media Mobilizing Project (MMP), a Philadelphia-based organization that aims to build a media, education and organizing infrastructure that will cohere and amplify the growing movement to end poverty. A report detailing the findings of this initiative is forthcoming in 2016.
The development of The Critical Media Project, an online teaching resource that features a wide range of annotated media artifacts, exploring the politics of identity across issues of race and ethnicity, class, gender and sexuality. The project was developed under the direction of Professor Alison Trope and in conjunction with students at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism.
The creation of MetaConnects, an online space for knowledge sharing between communication researchers and community-based practitioners. The initiative was formed as the community-based research arm of the Metamorphosis Project, an urban communication research project led by Professor Sandra J. Ball-Rokeach.
