FAFS' Department of Landscape Design and Ecosystem Management (LDEM) and Food Security Program (FSP) organized the launch of the edited volume Crisis and Conflict in Agriculture on Thursday, November 1 in Michel and Sherine Bayoud Lecture Hall. The book was published in September 2018 by CABI.
Opening the event, FSP Executive Committee Chair and Assistant Professor Martin Keulertz welcomed attendees and offered brief observations on the volume and its contributors. Two of the volume editors, Professor Rami Zurayk (LDEM) and Program Coordinator and Instructor Rachel Bahn (FSP), presented detailed highlights and contributions of the volume to the field and literature. Dr. Tariq Tell, Assistant Professor at the Department of Political Studies and Public Administration (AUB), then emphasized the theoretical aspects of the book and connection to ongoing political dynamics in the MENA region. Questions and answers with the audience followed. The audience was invited to a reception in the Nour Dajani FAFS Faculty Lounge.
More about the edited volume:
The volume Conflict and Crisis in Agriculture "sets out to explore the dialectic relating agriculture, crisis and conflict, and attempts to expand the knowledge on these interactions. Part 1 of the volume (chapters 1-6) discusses thematic issues and methodological approaches to understanding the intersection of agriculture, crisis and conflict. Part 2 (chapters 7-20) provides case studies that take a detailed approach to understanding agricultural contexts facing crisis and conflict, or the role played by agriculture within crisis and conflict. Studies are selected from areas that might be expected to feature in such a volume (the Middle East and North Africa, sub-Saharan Africa, South and Southeast Asia, and Latin America) as well as less obvious regions where conflict within agriculture refers not to widespread violence or wars but rather latent or simmering crisis (Central Asia and Europe). Crises stemming from politically-driven violence, natural disasters and climate change are covered, as well as competition over resources" (Publisher's Description).
AUB faculty members, staff, and students can access the volume as an e-book through the AUB Libraries. Hard-copies of the volume can be purchased online through the CABI bookshop.