Research Interests

• adult education, adult and lifelong learning, critical pedagogy and knowledge production
• sustainability
• globalization
• rural communities/rural women
• organic agriculture
• food and sustainable food systems
• the civil commons and the social economy
  

Courses

• AEC1100  Introduction to Adult Education
• AEC1131  Special Topics – The Pedagogy of Food
• AEC1193  Adult Education for Sustainability
  

Departmental Responsibilities

• Director, Certificate Program in Adult Education for Sustainability

Other Activities

• Consulting Editor, Canadian Journal for the Study of Adult Education
  

Publications

Books

Koc, Mustafa, Jennifer Sumner and Tony Winson (eds.). 2012 (forthcoming). Critical Perspectives in Food Studies.  Toronto: Oxford University Press.

Sumner, Jennifer. 2007/2005. Sustainability and the Civil Commons: Rural Communities in the Age of Globalization. University of Toronto Press.

Articles in Refereed Journals

Sumner, Jennifer.  (forthcoming 2012.)  “Dining on the Social Economy: Challenges and Opportunities for Local, Sustainable Food Policy in a Global Context.”  Canadian Review of Social Policy.

Sumner, Jennifer.  2011.  “Serving Social Justice:  The Role of the Commons in Sustainable Food Systems.”  Studies in Social Justice, Vol. 5, Issue 1, pp. 63-75.

Sumner, Jennifer and Sophie Llewelyn.  2011.  “Organic Solutions? Gender and Organic Farming in the Age of Industrial Agriculture.”  Capitalism, Nature, Socialism, Vol. 22, Number 1, pp. 100-118.

Sumner, Jennifer and Heather Mair.  2010.  “Putting Culture Back into Agriculture: Civic Engagement, Community and the Celebration of Local Food.”  International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability, Vol. 8, Nos. 1&2, pp. 54-61

Sumner, Jennifer.  2009.  “Sustainable Horticulture and Community Development: More Than Just Organic Production.”  Journal of Sustainable Agriculture, Vol. 33, Issue 4, pp.461-483.

Sumner, Jennifer.  2008.  “Eating as a Pedagogical Act: Food as a Catalyst for Adult Education for Sustainability.”  Kursiv - Journal fuer politische Bildung, Vol. 4, pp. 23-37

Sumner, Jennifer.  2008.  “‘A Market Where We All Fit’: Adult Education and the Fair Trade Movement.”  The Canadian Journal for the Study of Adult Education, Vol. 21, No. 1, pp. 37-46.

Sumner, Jennifer. 2008.  “Governance, Globalization and Political Economy: Perspectives from Canadian Adult Education.”  Adult Education Quarterly, Vol. 59, No. 1, pp. 22-41.

Sumner, Jennifer 2008.  “Protecting and Promoting Indigenous Knowledge: Environmental Adult Education and Organic Agriculture.”  Studies in the Education of Adults, Vol. 40, No. 2, pp. 207-223.

Mair, Heather, Jennifer Sumner and Leahora Rotteau.  2008.  “The Politics of Eating: Food Practices as Critically Reflective Leisure.”  Leisure/Loisir, Vol. 32, No. 2, pp. 379-405.

Sumner, Jennifer.  2008.  “From Academic Imperialism to the Civil Commons: Institutional Possibilities for Responding to the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development.”  Interchange: A Quarterly Review of Education, Vol. 39, No. 1, pp. 77-94.

Sumner, Jennifer. 2005. “Small is Beautiful: The Responses of Women Organic Farmers to the Crisis in Agriculture.” Canadian Woman Studies, Special Issue on Rural Women in Canada, Vol. 24, No 4, pp. 78-84.

Sumner, Jennifer. 2005. “Value Wars in the New Periphery: Sustainability, Rural Communities and Agriculture.” Agriculture and Human Values, Vol. 22, No. 3, pp. 303-312.

Sumner, Jennifer. 2003. “Visions of Sustainability: Women Organic Farmers and Rural Development.” Canadian Woman Studies, Vol. 23, Nos. 1 & 2, pp. 146-150.

Sumner, Jennifer. 2003. “Learning Our Way In: Sustainable Learning and the Civil Commons.” Convergence, Vol. XXXVI, No. 1, pp. 18-28.

Sumner, Jennifer. 2003. “Relations of Suspicion: Critical Theory and Interdisciplinary Research.” History of Intellectual Culture, Vol. 3, No. 1, Special Issue: “Free Space: Reconsidering Interdisciplinary Theory and Practice.” Available at: http://www.ucalgary.ca/hic/index.html

Sumner, Jennifer. 2001. “Serving the System: The Debate Continues.” Open Learning. Vol. 16, No. 1, pp. 94-97.

Sumner, Jennifer. 2000. “Serving the System: A Critical History of Distance Education.” Open Learning. Vol. 15, No. 3, pp. 267-285.

Sumner, Jennifer. 2000. “Community Sustainability and Adult Education: Learning to Build Civil Capital and Resist Corporate Globalization.” Australian Journal of Adult and Community Education. Vol. 40, No.2, pp. 53-65.

Sumner, Jennifer. 1999. “Global Vision or Corporate Nightmare? The Privatization of Adult Education in the New Millennium.” The Canadian Journal for the Study of Adult Education. Vol. 13, No. 2, pp. 73-85.

Chapters in Books

Sumner, Jennifer and Sophie Llewelyn.  2010.  “Organic Farmers and the Social Economy: Positive Synergies for Community Development.”  In Laurie Mook, Jack Quarter and Sherida Ryan (eds.), Researching the Social Economy.  Toronto: University of Toronto Press, pp. 289-311.

Clark, E. Ann and Jennifer Sumner.  2010.  “Lessons in Sustainability from Organic Farmers in Ontario, Canada.  In Stephen R. Gliessman and Martha Rosemeyer, The Conversion to Sustainable Agriculture: Principles, Processes and Practices.  Boca Raton, Florida: CRC Press, pp. 133-164.

Sumner, Jennifer.  2010.  “From Land to Table: Rural Planning and Development for Sustainable Food Systems.”  In David Douglas (ed.), Rural Planning and Development in Canada.  Toronto: Nelson Education Limited, pp. 179-224.

Mook, Laurie and Jennifer Sumner.  2010.  “Social Accounting for Sustainability in the Social Economy.”  In JJ McMurtry (ed.), Living Economics: Canadian Perspectives on the Social Economy, Co-operatives and Community Economic Development.  Toronto: Emond Montgomery Publications, pp. 155-178. 

Sumner, Jennifer and Heather Mair.  2008.  “Setting the Table: The Political Economy of Food.”  In Mustafa Koc, Rod MacRae and Kelly Bronson (eds.), Interdisciplinary Perspectives in Food Studies.  Toronto: McGraw-Hill Ryerson Limited, pp. 55-72.

Sumner, Jennifer.  2008.  “Keeping the Commons in Academic Culture: Protecting the Knowledge Commons from the Enclosure of the Knowledge Economy.”  In Adrienne S. Chan and Donald Fisher (eds.), The Exchange University: Corporatization of Academic Culture.  Vancouver: UBC Press, pp. 188-202.

Sumner, Jennifer. 2006. “From the Knowledge Economy to the Knowledge Commons: Resisting the Commodification of Knowledge.” In Gordon Laxer and Dennis Soron (eds.), Not For Sale: Decommodifying Public Life. Toronto: Broadview Press, pp. 203-217.

Sumner, Jennifer. 2004. “The Impact of Corporate Globalization on Women’s Access to Education.” In Mina Singh (ed.), Challenges of Globalization, Geneva: International Federation of University Women, pp. 37-51.

Sumner, Jennifer. 2003. “Environmental Adult Education and Community Sustainability.” In Lilian H. Hill and Darlene E. Clover (eds.), Environmental Adult Education: Issues and Concerns. New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers, pp. 39-45.

Sumner, Jennifer. 2003. “The New World Order and the Destruction of Public Education: The Case of Canada.” In Gordana Yovanovich (ed.), The New World Order: Corporate Agenda and Parallel Reality. Montreal/Kingston: McGill-Queen’s Press, pp. 106-122.

Sumner, Jennifer. 2002. “Dumbing Down Distance Education: The Corporate Agenda and the End of Quality.” In Missing Pieces III: An Alternative Guide to Canadian Post-Secondary Education, Erika Shaker and Denise Doherty-Delorme (eds.) Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, March, pp. 99-103.

Sumner, Jennifer. 2001. “The Impact of the Restructuring of Higher Education on Rural Communities.” In Missing Pieces II: An Alternative Guide to Canadian Post-Secondary Education, Erika Shaker and Denise Doherty-Delorme (eds.) Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, January, pp. 57-62.

Encyclopedia Articles

McMurtry, John and Jennifer Sumner.  2010.  “Greenpeace.”  In Nigel J. Young (ed.), The Oxford International Encyclopedia of Peace.  Toronto: Oxford University Press.

Sumner, Jennifer. 2005. “Human Capital Theory.” In The Encyclopedia of Adult Education, Leona English (ed.), New York: Palgrave Macmillan Publishers, pp. 286-290.

Sumner, Jennifer. 2005. “Social Justice.” In The Encyclopedia of Adult Education, Leona English (ed.), New York: Palgrave Macmillan Publishers, pp. 580-584.

Links

Annual Conference for Social Research in Organic Agriculture

http://www.oacc.info/ResearchDatabase/res_socsci_welcome.asp