MAY 2026
Dear Network Members,
We hope you enjoyed last month’s newsletter on emotions and affect in connection to feminist agricultural practices and agroecology.
This month, we’ve selected a few articles, news stories, and other updates on broader themes of feminist agroecology that we hope you’ll find interesting.
We are also happy to share the news that we have secured funding to set up a website and are in the process of launching a new initiative aimed at showcasing stories of women farmers from around the world through photo essays and other digital mediums. These stories will be hosted on the website alongside past editions of the newsletter.
We will be launching this initiative in the coming month. In the meantime, if you have stories of feminist agroecology in practice that are close to you that you would like to highlight, please do get in touch at agrofutures@proton.me.
Warmly,
AgroFutures Team
ACADEMIC ARTICLES
Camacho-Benavides, C.I., Navas, G., Batool, F., Rodríguez Lezica, L., Gyapong, A.Y. and Karimasari, N., 2026. Reimagining health with food sovereignty and critical agrarian studies. The Journal of Peasant Studies, pp.1-25.
Nichols, C. and Kumari, N., 2026. The gendered dimensions of an ‘herbicide revolution’: a feminist analysis of herbicide adoption in central India. World Development, 203, p.107397.https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305750X26000860
BOOKS AND ZINES
For Italian speaking readers we share the Italian translation of the booklet Transforming Agriculture and Beyond by Officine Gramigna. Available herehttps://commonecologies.net/publications/trasformare-lagricoltura-italiano/
La traduzione nasce sullo sfondo del “caldo inverno” di 2024 delle proteste dei trattori che hanno attraversato l’Europa: un contesto che ha spinto il collettivo ad arricchire la prefazione italiana con riflessioni proprie su quel momento politico. Nel corso dell’ultimo anno, il booklet è stato ampiamente utilizzato durante l’estate e l’autunno 2025, attivandolo in diverse comunità rurali del Sud Italia, e ci auguriamo che continui a essere riattivato anche in futuro, in forme sempre più creative e situate.
MEDIA ARTICLES
From Control to Co-Existence: Agency, Knowledge, and Insect Literacy at the Keet Saksharta Mission. In this article, Caroline Fazli reflects on the work of the Keet Saksharta Mission (KSM), a farmer-led initiative focused on what they call “insect literacy”. Rather than framing insects as pests to be eradicated through increased pesticide use, the organisation engages with insects as indicators of ecological health on the farm. The organisation argues that insects’ roles and behaviours should be understood, and their ecological “message” taken seriously, rather than dismissed or eliminated through spraying. The article is availablehere
Agroecology Is Expected to Prove its Impact With the Wrong Evidence. In this post, Keiron Audain challenges the framework through which agroecology is commonly assessed—often using indicators such as productivity, profitability, and efficiency. He argues that these measures are designed to evaluate the success of extractive, industrialised agricultural models, and therefore fail to capture the full value of agroecology. By contrast, assessing agroecological initiatives requires new metrics that reflect a broader set of outcomes, including ecological regeneration, resilience, social wellbeing, and equity. The article is availablehere
Nourish Scotland is a charity focusing on food policy and practice. On their website they share stories from and insights into the agroecology transition in Scotland https://www.nourishscotland.org/agroecology-resources/
THESES
Agroecology and Wellbeing: A journey into unheard ecological imaginaries and gendered understandings of agroecological practices in Sicily, Italy. Giulianna Delgadillo Parra, MA in Development Studies, at the International Institute of Social Studies Erasmus University Rotterdam here
PODCASTS
The Battle for African Agriculture is a podcast hosted by Dr. Million Belay, General Coordinator of the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA). The podcast exposes the enduring legacies of colonialism in African food systems, challenging corporate-driven narratives, and brings to the fore agroecological solutions rooted in justice, biocultural diversity, and food sovereignty.
You can find all their Episodes on Youtube:https://www.youtube.com/@BFAAPOD
EVENTS & TRAINING
Pathways Autumn School 2026 (Nov 16–20, Aussois, France)
The 5th edition of the Pathways Autumn School will take place 16–20 November 2026 in Aussois, in the French Alps. Bringing together around 50 early career and senior researchers, the school will focus on the theme: “Towards Sustainable and Just Futures: Concepts, Challenges, and Practices.”
The autumn school offers early career researchers in sustainability science an opportunity to reflect on research practices and strengthen their ability to engage in inter- and transdisciplinary collaborations that support deep societal transformations.
More details here:https://pathways.futureearth.org/pathways-autumn-school/
Deadline: May 22 (midnight CEST)
PhD Course: Environmental Storytelling (Oct 20–23, Roskilde, Denmark)
The course explores how research can take shape as stories that matter—stories that can be felt, sensed, and performed. Together, we will ask: Who and what can be(come) storytellers in research? How do we acknowledge our own implicatedness while engaging environmental and planetary concerns?
We invite PhD researchers working with multispecies ecologies, environmental topics, and climate change, including themes such as sustainability and regeneration, Indigenous knowledges, ecology, multispecies justice, waste and pollution, extraction and mining, and related fields. We also welcome PhD fellows interested in materiality, the senses, affect, and research as/through storytelling.
The course is collaborative, co-creative, and arts- and practice-based, with time dedicated to experiments, exercises, work-sharings, and multimodal discussions of participants’ research. We will work across a wide range of media, including text, audiovisual materials, sound, movement and embodiment, archives, zines, crafts, and landscape practices.
Read more and apply here:https://events.ruc.dk/ikhphdenvironmentalstorytelling
Application deadline (with papers): July 31
CALL FOR PAPERS
To mark 2026 as the International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists, Rooted Magazine will publish a special issue in collaboration with the World Alliance of Mobile Indigenous Peoples (WAMIP).
For the September 2026 issue, they are seeking contributions that centre pastoralist and mobile Indigenous voices, knowledge systems, and struggles as lived, political, and creative practices.
Nomadic and transhumant pastoralism supports an estimated 100–200 million people worldwide, across landscapes ranging from tundras to deserts. Pastoralist communities safeguard vital livestock genetic resources and have sustained livelihoods for generations.
They invite submissions of stories, reflections, and insights grounded in real experiences, particularly those exploring the intersections of pastoralism and agroecology. Languages accepted: English, Spanish, French, or Portuguese.
Deadline: 1 June 2026
Link https://rooted-magazine.org/call-for-contributions/
The Rural Women’s Studies Association (RWSA) and the Agricultural History Society (AHS) invite proposals for their joint 2027 conference, to be held in person in Grand Forks, North Dakota, USA. The conference theme, “Identities, Landscape, Boundaries,” encourages scholars, students, artists, scientists, and community practitioners to explore how physical, political, social, cultural, and ecological boundaries shape rural lives and landscapes across time and place.
Proposals may address topics such as transnational borders, farm-town relationships, race, gender, class, sexuality, land ownership and dispossession, labor, climate change, digital connectivity, queer ruralities, and the boundaries of memory, storytelling, and representation, though submissions on other topics are also welcome.
The early submission deadline is June 1, 2026 applicants will be notified by December 1, 2026. Link: https://ruralwomensstudies.org/conferences-2/rwsa-2027-conference/?trk=feed_main-feed-card_feed-article-content
AGROECOLOGY AND ART
Soil Art Tales Exhibition - The Global Network of Water Museums will launch the Soil Art Tales, a travelling exhibition exploring the deep connections between soil, water, and life through contemporary art.
Organised by the Global Network of Water Museums (WAMU+NET) and curated by Stefano Cagol as part of the Horizon Europe project SOILTRIBES, the exhibition features works by Binta Diaw, Nikki Lindt, Jo Pearl Ceramics, and Miguel Teodoro.
Through installations, photography, and research-based artistic practices, the artists invite visitors to rediscover soil as a living ecosystem—and a key ally for environmental and social sustainability.
Villa Altieri, Rome, 14 May – 5 June 2026Opening: 14 May 2026, 17:00
Film – The Middle Ground (Documentary Trailer)
The Middle Ground is a documentary exploring a values-based food system that connects the work of small-scale farmers directly to the kitchen tables of food-insecure households. The film draws on research by Dr. Aparna Katre (University of Minnesota Duluth) and community-based initiatives such as DCWC Nourish.
Watch the trailer here:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SK6t9HEMhHQ