Dr. Jennifer Vansteenkiste – Researcher, Gender and Development Specialist

Dr. Vansteenkiste’s feminist-informed research is predicated on the premise that power is spatial, crosses borders, and informs social relations. Specifically, she examines the impact of the world food economy on Haitian peasant efforts to decolonize and make critical contributions to food security in light of protracted national and international efforts to liberalize land and production for export. Specifically, she documents how land grabs and the gender-blind and production-centred world food economy impacts peasant efforts to make strategic and critical contributions to achieve greater social stability, food security and food sovereignty.

Her current SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellowship expands on this interdisciplinary research in a collaborative research partnership with 27 Haitian organizations to examine food security and health equity through a gendered lens. The collaborative research partnership includes non-governmental organizations, community-based organizations, government representatives, l’université d’État d’Haïti-Limonade campus, and colleagues from Wilfrid Laurier University, Université Téluq and the University of Waterloo.