College of Agriculture & Natural Resources Department of Community Sustainability

Wynne Wright received her Ph.D. in sociology in 1999 from the University of Kentucky. Before joining the faculty at Michigan State University in 2006 she was employed by the University of Northern Iowa and the University of Minnesota.

Her research, teaching and public outreach activities broadly examine social change in the agri-food system. She is particularly interested in examining the restructuring of agriculture and food systems and its impact on farm families and rural communities. In the domestic context, she has conducted social impact assessments of confined animal feeding operations in Minnesota, investigated the transformation of the tobacco system in Kentucky, and studied the social construction of BSE (mad cow disease). Most recently her work was turned toward the study of food system localization. Currently, Dr Wright is exploring the contradictions in local food system initiatives and their capacity for invigorating local communities and inspiring a ‘civic agriculture’. Dr. Wright is also interested in examining the condition of east–central European farmers in the post-Soviet agrarian transition. In this work, she has been following the impact of European Unification on agriculture and rural communities. In the Spring of 2006, Dr. Wright held a Fulbright Scholarship where she taught environmental sociology at the Institute for Environmental and Landscape Management at Szent István University in Gödöllo, Hungary. This was the latest endeavor in an on-going relationship with Szent István University.