Loka Ashwood
Loka Ashwood | |
|---|---|
| Awards | MacArthur Fellow (2024) |
| Academic background | |
| Alma mater | |
| Academic work | |
| Discipline | Sociologist |
| Sub-discipline | Rural communities |
| Institutions | |
| Website | lokaashwood |
Loka Ashwood (born 1984 or 1985) is an American sociologist currently working at the University of Kentucky as an associate professor of sociology.[1] Her research focuses on rural communities and their issues.[2][3] She is a 2024 MacArthur Fellow.[3][4]
Her first book, For-Profit Democracy, investigated the relationship between rural American communities and the U.S. government through the lens of Burke County, Georgia and the construction of a nuclear power plant there.[3]
Ashwood co-wrote the 2023 book Empty Fields, Empty Promises, which explored right-to-farm laws across the United States.[3] She has criticized right-to-farm laws, saying they have been used by agricultural corporations to limit the efficacy of pollution-focused lawsuits.[5]
Life
[edit]Ashwood was raised in a farming family in Illinois.[3][6]
She graduated in 2007 from Northwestern University with a BS.[3] She interned as a reporter for U.S. Farm Report for a few years while at Northwestern.[7] She graduated in 2009 from University of Galway with an ML,[3] and went on to do community development work at Illinois Institute for Rural Affairs.[7] She earned her PhD in 2015 from the University of Wisconsin, Madison.[3]
Ashwood worked as an assistant professor at Auburn University from 2015–2020. In 2020 she was hired by the University of Kentucky.[3]
Publications
[edit]Books
[edit]- For-Profit Democracy: Why the Government Is Losing the Trust of Rural America (2018)[3]
- Empty Fields, Empty Promises: A State-by-State Guide to Understanding and Transforming the Right to Farm (2023); co-written with Aimee Imlay, Lindsay Kuehn, Allen Franco, and Danielle Diamond[3][8]
References
[edit]- ^ "Loka Ashwood". University of Kentucky College of Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 2024-10-02.
- ^ Miller, Kerri; Gordon, Kelly (2022-09-19). "The U.S. urban-rural divide is mostly a myth. Here's what's real". MPR News. Retrieved 2024-10-02.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k "Loka Ashwood". MacArthur Foundation. 2024-10-01. Retrieved 2024-10-02.
- ^ Blair, Elizabeth (2024-10-01). "Here's who made the 2024 MacArthur Fellows list". NPR.
- ^ Ashwood, Loka; Diamond, Danielle (2019-04-11). "Right-to-Farm laws run counter to rural culture and property rights". EHN. Retrieved 2024-10-02.
- ^ Weeks, Olivia (2022-01-14). "Q&A: Why Is the Government Losing Rural America's Trust?". The Daily Yonder. Retrieved 2024-10-02.
- ^ a b Weeks, Olivia (2022-01-14). "Q&A: Why Is the Government Losing Rural America's Trust?". The Daily Yonder. Retrieved 2024-10-02.
- ^ "Empty Fields, Empty Promises | Loka Ashwood". University of North Carolina Press. Retrieved 2024-10-02.
- Living people
- 1980s births
- 21st-century American non-fiction writers
- 21st-century American women writers
- Academics from Illinois
- Alumni of the University of Galway
- American sociologists
- American women sociologists
- Auburn University faculty
- MacArthur Fellows
- Northwestern University alumni
- University of Kentucky faculty