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About Gigi Berardi

Gigi Berardi received her BA in biology with high honors from John Muir College, University of California San Diego and her MS and PhD in Resources, Policy, and Planning from Cornell University. She holds a MA in dance (now, World Arts and Cultures) from UCLA. She taught at The Evergreen State College, Olympia, Washington, from 1994-1995, and is now professor and project director (after seven years as chair of the Department of Environmental Studies, and another recent four-year tenure) at Huxley College, Western Washington University, where she focuses on community vulnerabilities and cultural ecology around food systems. Her research and writing includes study and review of Food and Farm Systems, Native American Studies and Tribal Education, and Performing Arts. Since coming to Western, she has continued her research and writing in both environmental studies and arts but also has extended her career-long interests to increasingly blend the two fields. In her research into historical consolidation of communities that exist beyond economic or environmental carrying capacities in remote sub-arctic areas, she integrates natural resources and cultural geography with traditional music and dance. In addition to having served as a core faculty member in the Tribal Environmental and Natural Resources Management (TENRM) program, she completed work on a special issue on Alaska natural resources and Native land claims for Journal of Land, Resources, & Environmental Law. A trilogy of three co-authored articles on resilience in the US food system has been published in Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Journal of Sustainable Agriculture, and Human Ecology Review. Her work on Native dance and arts Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Journal of Sustainable Agriculture, and Human Ecology Review. Her work on Native dance and arts as subsistence resources has appeared in publications such as Dance Magazine and The Anchorage Daily News. She continues to serve as assistant editor for the Journal of Dance Medicine & Science and contribution writer and editor for Dance Magazine. Her most recent work is the popularly- and academically-acclaimed FoodWISE: A Whole Systems Guide to Sustainable and Delicious Food Choices. Information on her work and this publication can be found at https://wp.wwu.edu/gigiberardi/

Positions

Present Faculty Member, Western Washington University Western Expert
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Present Professor, Environmental Studies Department, Western Washington University Huxley College of the Environment
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Present Professor, Huxley College of the Environment, Western Washington University Huxley College of the Environment
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Curriculum Vitae




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Honors and Awards

  • 2012: Research Grant, Whatcom Community Foundation, Bellingham ($5,000); smaller grant awarded in 2011.
  • 2011: ADDY award (AAF-ADDY award) for "Our Farms Are at Risk" film, funded and coordinated by The Resilience Institute in conjunction with Hand Crank Films.
  • WWU's Huxley College of the Environment Awarded $140,000 USDA Grant to Research Methods to Keep Local Farms Viable. Resilience Institute (2009-2012).

Courses

  • Ecogast: Art & Science Food (ENVS 110)
  • Geography and World Affairs (ENVS 240)
  • Research and Writing (ENVS 319)
  • Agroecology & Sustainable Agriculture (ENVS 410)
  • Agroecology Practicum and Studio (ENVS 411)
  • Research and Projects for Environmental Studies (ENVS 501)


Contact Information

Office: AH204
WWU Mailstop - 9085
Phone: 360-650-2106

Email:


Food and Farm Systems (23)

Research / History and Philosophy (1)

Native American Studies and Tribal Education (8)