Andrea Brown

Associate Professor, Political Science, Wilfrid Laurier University  

Andrea Brown
Faculty
Faculty

Andrea Brown

Associate Professor, Political Science, Wilfrid Laurier University

Andrea Brown is Associate Professor of Political Science and Coordinator of Multidisciplinary Studies at Wilfrid Laurier University.

The focus of her research is urban food security in Africa. Rapid urbanization is transforming food systems across Africa with important implications for feeding growing populations of urban poor who rely on cash economies while experiencing informal employment and precarious housing. She is particularly interested in the nexus between urban food security with migration, gender, and governance, and the multi-level policy environments supporting anti-poverty measures. Her research centres on cities in Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania.

Select Publications

2025. Refugee Protection and Food Security in Kampala. African Human Mobility Review. 10(3): 131-154.

2025. (with Valdrin Dragusha). The Forth Industrial Revolution: Can Emerging Technologies Address Rural Food Insecurity for Smallholder Farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa? (October 22). Balsillie Paper, vol.7, issue 8.

2025. With Alison Blay-Palmer and Carla Johnston. “Taking power into their own hands”: Women Leading Food Systems Change in Canada’s North, Ecuador, and Uganda. Handpicked: Stories from the Field, Season 5, episode 2.

2024. Refugee Food Security in Kampala. MiFood Paper #18.
2022. Co-productive urban planning: Protecting and expanding food security in Uganda’s secondary cities. In Liam Riley and Jonathan Crush (eds). Transforming Urban Food Systems in Secondary Cities in Africa. Palgrave.

2020. From decentralisation to co-production in Kampala: Changing the game for Uganda’s urban poor? Trialog: Planning and Building in a Global Context. Vol. 2:46-52.

2019. Planning for less planning: Supporting informal food systems in Nairobi. In Carlos Nunes Silva (ed.) Routledge Handbook of Urban Planning in Africa. London/New York: Routledge.

Education

  • Ph.D. University of Toronto (1999)
  • M.Phil. Cambridge University (1993)
  • BAH, Queen’s University (1992)

The BSIA is closed Monday, January 26th due to severe weather and local travel conditions.