Sarah Rotz - EUC | 91��ɫ

Associate Professor

Credentials

PhD Geography, University of Guelph
MES Environmental Studies, 91��ɫ
BA (Honours) Environmental Management, University of Toronto

Research Keywords

Political Ecology; Land & Food Justice; Settler Colonial Studies; Critical Data Studies; Critical Theory & Methods.

Graduate Supervision

I supervise students in the graduate programs in Environmental Studies, Geography and

Contact Information

4700 Keele Street
Toronto, ON M3J 1P3

416 736 2100

rotzs@yorku.ca

Research Interests

My academic and organizing work is grounded in environmental justice, with a focus on land and food systems. Much of my research aims to situate political economic processes – such as agri-food industrialization, financialization, and policy – within a lens of settler colonial patriarchy and racial capitalism. I also explore the consequences of these processes for sovereignty, justice and resistance movements more broadly. My work has focused on topics ranging from the political economy and ecology of farmland tenure and critical perspectives of big data in agriculture, to the ways that settler colonial logics and gendered narratives uphold extractive practices and relationships on the land.

My research is often collaborative and interdisciplinary in nature, and I have a keen interest in the ethics, politics and process of research itself. In my current work, I draw from decolonial, feminist and community-based methodologies to collaboratively explore and move toward more accountable and reciprocal research relations. I also do ongoing community-based work with various organizations and campaigns including food and farmer’s associations, fossil fuel divestment, as well as climate justice and food sovereignty movements.

Research Projects

2019-2022 Insight Development Grant, SSHRC (Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council). Project: “Relational Accountability for Indigenous Rematriation (RAIR): Creating food sovereignty through rematriation, land sharing, and relationship building”

2023, SSHRC Insight Grant: Digitalization, financialization, and consolidation in the Canadian agri-food sector – Co-Investigator ($264,715 over 5 years)

2018 - Environments and Health Team Grant: Intersectoral Prevention Research, CIHR (Canadian Institutes of Health Research)“A Shared Future: Achieving Strength, Health, and Autonomy through Renewable Energy Developments for the Future” Program of Research, Queens University. Co-Chairs: Heather Castleden & Diana Lewis

Research Output

Mosby, I., Rotz, S., Fraser, E. D. G. (2020) . University of Regina Press; 280 pages.

Funk, L., Rotz, S., Desmarais, A., A. (2025) Land Data for Whom? The Marketization, Privatization and Commercialization of Land Data Management in Canada, Geoforum, 165.

Rotz, S., Rück, D., & LeBlanc, J. (2025) Farming the North: Cycles of Extraction & Dispossession, Antipode, 57(2), 622-648.

Seidman-Wright, T., Rotz, S. (2024) Exploring activist perspectives on Indigenous-settler solidarity in Toronto’s food sovereignty movement. Canadian Food Studies (CFS), 11(3), 65-89.

Rotz, S., Levkoe, C., Stiegman, M., Koc, M., Singh, I., Ajl, M., Al Masri, Y., Podur, J. (2024) From Palestine to Turtle Island: Food as a Weapon of Colonialism and Tool of Liberation, Canadian Food Studies (CFS), 11(3), 43-64.

Rotz, S., Robin, T., & Xavier, A. (2023). “It wasn’t built for us”: The Possibility of Indigenous Food Sovereignty in Settler Colonial Food Bureaucracies. Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development (JAFSCD), 12(3), 93-110,

The RAIR Collective* (2023). Field Notes from RAIR: Putting Relational Accountability into Practice. Canadian Food Studies (CFS). *In alphabetical order: Boissoneau, D., Fenton, A., Giacomini, T., Lickers, A. X., Kepkiewicz, L., Rotz, S., 10(1), 13-21,

Duncan, E., Rotz, S., Magnan, A., Bronson, K. (2022) Disciplining Land through Data: The Role of Agricultural Technologies in Farmland Investment. Virtual Special Issue on responsible digital agri-food innovation, Sociologia Ruralis, 62(2), 231-249,

Rotz, S. (2022) Gendered Messaging. In Showing Theory to Know Theory: Understanding social science concepts through illustrative vignettes, edited by Patricia Ballamingie and David Szanto. Ottawa, ON: Showing Theory Press.

Rotz, S. (2022) Food as Relations: Reflecting on our Roots, (Re)visioning our Relationships. In Food Studies: Matter, Meaning & Movement. Rebus Community.

Bronson, K., Rotz, S., & D'Alessandro, A. (2021) Edward Elgar Publishing.

Sanchez-Pimienta C. E., Masuda J. R., Doucette M. B., Lewis D., Rotz S., the Native Women’s Association of Canada, Tait Neufeld H., and Castleden H. (2021). International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.

Rotz, S., Rose, J., Masuda, J., Lewis, D., Castleden, H. (2021). Social Science & Medicine.

Walker, C., Doucette, M.B., Rotz, S., Lewis, D., Tait Neufeld, H., & Castleden, H. (2021) Qualitative Research in Organizations and Management.

Rotz, S. et al. (2019) Sociologia Ruralis, 59(2).

Rotz, S. et al. (2019) Journal of Rural Studies, 68.

Rotz, S. & Kepkiewicz, L. (2018) Canadian Food Studies (CFS).

Kepkiewicz, L. & Rotz, S. (2018) Canadian Food Studies (CFS).

Rotz, S. and Fraser, E. D. G. (2018) The Limits of Sustainability and Resilience Frameworks: Lessons from agri-food system research. In S. Bell, & S. Morse (Eds), The Routledge Handbook of Sustainable Indicators. Routledge. New 91��ɫ; London.

Rotz, S. (2017) Geoforum, 82: 158–69.

Rotz, S. (2017) Agriculture and Human Values, 35.

Rotz, S., Fraser, E. D. G., Martin, R. (2017) Journal of Peasant Studies 46.

Rotz, S., & Fraser, E. D. G. (2015) Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, 5, 459–473.

Recognition & Awards

SSHRC Insight Development Grant
Richard Barham Graduate Medal
SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellowship
Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship

Courses

Course Code	Title
SOSC 4000 6.0	Topics in Social Science Research: Land & Food
SOSC 2000 6.0	Interdisciplinary Approaches to Social Inquiry
GEOG 2030	The End of the Earth as We Know It: Global Environmental Change