In Their Words: Halie Kampman
STUDENT INFORMATION
Name: Halie Kampman
Department: Environmental Studies
What Scholarship or Award did you receive? Jessica Roy Memorial Award
What year are you (1st year, 3rd year)? 2nd year
Where do you call home? Northern California
What is your field of focus? Agriculture and nutrition in the context of international development
With all of the choices for college, what made UC Santa Cruz stand out?
I was drawn to Santa Cruz for its interdisciplinary Environmental Studies program. I was looking for a program where I could learn the natural sciences in concert with social sciences. Before starting my PhD, I was working in international food policy in Dakar, Senegal. The experience led me to be interested in exploring alternatives to mainstream international development projects around agriculture. In Dakar, I met some UCSC students doing agroeocological research. I got in touch with their professor, and proposed my own project. I saw Santa Cruz as a hub for independent critical thought, and I wanted to challenge myself to engage in a new kind of politics.
What do you hope to do once you graduate from UC Santa Cruz?
I hope to become a professor and balance both research and teaching.
What is one memorable moment that stands out for you as a student here?
In my first year, I took a course called “The Idea of Africa” taught by professor Dent. This was a particularly memorable class because it combined students from multiple disciplines: humanities, social sciences, and the arts. It was cross-listed in Feminist Studies and History of Consciousness, and led me to realize that at this university I would be encouraged to do research that synthesizes schools of thought and challenges boundaries.
How will this scholarship/award impact your academic life/research?
This scholarship will help fund my summer research. It will provide essential funding for my flight to Washington, DC, and NVivo coding software.
What does this scholarship/award mean to you?
This scholarship holds particular meaning because it is in honor of Jessica Roy. When I read the call for applicants, I was moved by the generosity and commitment of the donors. I found that by chance, my research has remarkable parallels to the award description. I feel honored to carry on this type of research, to work with Jessica Roy’s former professors, and hopefully make a positive contribution to a body of work that will advance positive solutions to environmental issues for women in the global south.
Research
My research interests address agricultural projects in sub Saharan Africa which are designed to improve nutrition. More specifically, I study the recent effort to solve malnutrition through biofortification, the breeding of staple crops to be richer in essential micronutrients. Rather than accepting biofortification as the silver bullet it is often made out to be, my research troubles biofortification to examine the degree to which it offers an alternative to conventional approaches (short term nutritional supplements), and how its outcomes may be gendered.
Drawing theoretical tools from food studies, feminist studies, and critical development studies, my research examines the driving forces underlying the rise of biofortification over the past 15 years. I study biofortification projects from their inception in international research centers, to their implementation at the community level. I ask: How and why has biofortification emerged as the answer to micronutrient deficiency, and how is it actually experienced in target communities?
Name: Halie Kampman
Department: Environmental Studies
What Scholarship or Award did you receive? Jessica Roy Memorial Award
What year are you (1st year, 3rd year)? 2nd year
Where do you call home? Northern California
What is your field of focus? Agriculture and nutrition in the context of international development
With all of the choices for college, what made UC Santa Cruz stand out?
I was drawn to Santa Cruz for its interdisciplinary Environmental Studies program. I was looking for a program where I could learn the natural sciences in concert with social sciences. Before starting my PhD, I was working in international food policy in Dakar, Senegal. The experience led me to be interested in exploring alternatives to mainstream international development projects around agriculture. In Dakar, I met some UCSC students doing agroeocological research. I got in touch with their professor, and proposed my own project. I saw Santa Cruz as a hub for independent critical thought, and I wanted to challenge myself to engage in a new kind of politics.
What do you hope to do once you graduate from UC Santa Cruz?
I hope to become a professor and balance both research and teaching.
What is one memorable moment that stands out for you as a student here?
In my first year, I took a course called “The Idea of Africa” taught by professor Dent. This was a particularly memorable class because it combined students from multiple disciplines: humanities, social sciences, and the arts. It was cross-listed in Feminist Studies and History of Consciousness, and led me to realize that at this university I would be encouraged to do research that synthesizes schools of thought and challenges boundaries.
How will this scholarship/award impact your academic life/research?
This scholarship will help fund my summer research. It will provide essential funding for my flight to Washington, DC, and NVivo coding software.
What does this scholarship/award mean to you?
This scholarship holds particular meaning because it is in honor of Jessica Roy. When I read the call for applicants, I was moved by the generosity and commitment of the donors. I found that by chance, my research has remarkable parallels to the award description. I feel honored to carry on this type of research, to work with Jessica Roy’s former professors, and hopefully make a positive contribution to a body of work that will advance positive solutions to environmental issues for women in the global south.
Research
My research interests address agricultural projects in sub Saharan Africa which are designed to improve nutrition. More specifically, I study the recent effort to solve malnutrition through biofortification, the breeding of staple crops to be richer in essential micronutrients. Rather than accepting biofortification as the silver bullet it is often made out to be, my research troubles biofortification to examine the degree to which it offers an alternative to conventional approaches (short term nutritional supplements), and how its outcomes may be gendered.
Drawing theoretical tools from food studies, feminist studies, and critical development studies, my research examines the driving forces underlying the rise of biofortification over the past 15 years. I study biofortification projects from their inception in international research centers, to their implementation at the community level. I ask: How and why has biofortification emerged as the answer to micronutrient deficiency, and how is it actually experienced in target communities?
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