Karl Zimmerer is Professor of Environment and Society Geography and is in the Ecology and Rural Sociology programs. He directs the GeoSyntheSES lab. His research, teaching, and broader activities center on global food geographies. Karl combines social and political ecology to focus on the human-environment geography of biodiversity in land use and food systems (agrobiodiversity). His work advances theoretical and analytical models, selectively using regional case studies and community participation to strengthen sustainability and social justice.
Karl’s recent collaborative works concentrate on the human-environment analysis of agrobiodiversity in land use and food systems amid globalization and climate change (Frontiers Sust. Food Systems 2022, J. Latin American Geography 2021, Nature Plants 2017), the knowledge-policy integration of environmental geography and interdisciplinary approaches (Ency. Human Geography 2022, Agrobiodiversity: Integrating Knowledge for Sustainability 2019), and the inter-landscape spatial connectivities of urbanization (ReVista: Harvard Review of Latin America 2024; Agricultural Systems 2022, Nature Food 2022, Elementa: Science of the Anthropocene 2023, One Earth 2021, Frontiers Sust. Food Systems 2020). His interests interweave mobility and migration (Geoforum 2022; Food Security 2020, Land 2021, 2020, Anthropocene 2019), COVID survival and seed-system strategies (SEPIA XX: Perú, El Problema Agrario en Debate 2024-forthcoming, Elementa: Science of the Anthropocene 2023), and diverse subaltern food spaces and biodiversity in relation to large-scale agriculture (Elementa 2024; The Journal of Peasant Studies2023; Annals AAG 2017, Landscape and Urban Planning 2015, Resilience: International Policies/Practices/Discourses 2015). Karl is the founding and chief editor of Urban Agriculture.
Karl teaches geography and interdisciplinary courses on global food geographies at the undergraduate and graduate levels. Karl has served in department and institute leadership at Penn State (2007-14) and at University of Wisconsin--Madison, and in wide-ranging national and international organizations and diverse editorships. He is the recipient of AAAS, Guggenheim, and Rockefeller fellow recognition, Penn State’s Medal for Outstanding Research in the Social Sciences, and awards from the American Geographical Society and sub-groups on Latin America, Biogeography, and Cultural and Political Ecology of the American Association of Geographers. On-line CV available here.
New Addendum---focus themes for understanding and strengthening the human-environment relations of agrobiodiversity for sustainability and justice:
(1) agrobiodiversity’s adaptive capacities and reciprocal knowledge-power-management systems for diverse community development amid climate, water, and nutrition crises (SEPIA XX-Perú 2024-forthcoming, Fr. Sust. Food Systems 2022, Global Environmental Change 2011, BioScience 1998, J Biogeography 1991, J Ethnobiology 1991)
(2) the environment-development interactions of agrobiodiversity with food-system globalization, neoliberalism, telecoupling, agricultural intensification, and farmer-food movements (Elementa 2024, J Latin American Geography 2021, Ecology & Society 2018, PNAS 2013, Geographical Review 1991)
(3) seed-systems, commoning, and scaling of agrobiodiversity among diverse communities (Dumbarton Oaks 2024-forthcoming; Elementa 2023, Political Ecology 2003, Society & Natural Resources 2003, Allpanchis-Peru 1991)
(4) changing soil-water dynamics influencing agrobiodiversity through institutions, community groups and social movements (Geoforum 2022, in Beyond Neoliberalism 2009, in Liberation Ecologies 2002, 1994)
(5) multiple relations of migration and urbanization to agrobiodiversity (ReVista 2024, Agricultural Systems 2022, One Earth 2021, Ecology & Society 2013, Geographical Review 1991)
(6) inclusive cultural-historical analysis including the “Living Well” movement and the past-to-present environmental, food, and sociospatial legacies of agrobiodiversity (J Peasant Studies 2023, Landscape & Urban Planning 2015; PMLA 2012; Changing Fortunes 1996; Nature 1995, J Historical Geography 1994)
(7) unfolding agrobiodiversity utilization in food territories, conservation and protected-area interactions (Fr. Sust. Food Systems 2021, New Geographies of Conservation 2006, Ambio 2004, Nature’s Geography 1996)
(8) cross-theme frameworks, models, synthesis, and narratives of agrobiodiversity (Anthropocene 2019, Agrobiodiversity: Integrating Knowledge for Sustainability 2019, Nature Plants 2017, Changing Fortunes 1996)