Saskia Cornes is Assistant Professor of the Practice, Duke Franklin Humanities Institute. Dr. Saskia Cornes took the helm at the Duke Campus Farm in June 2014. Saskia holds a PhD in English Literature from Columbia University and teaches in the environmental humanities through Duke’s Franklin Humanities Institute. A farmer by vocation, she learned regenerative agriculture through a range of apprenticeships on urban and rural farms, and through post-graduate study in organic agriculture at the Center for Agroecology at UC Santa Cruz. She has been working in and around the campus farm movement since 2009, designing experiential curricula in critical food studies for Columbia University, the University of San Francisco, UC Santa Cruz and Hostos Commmunity College.In her work now, she weaves teaching, farming, and more traditional forms of research together to rework our relationship to climate, and our relationship to food, and the land and people that grow it. Saskia heads up DCF’s academic efforts, including teaching and research collaborations at/with the farm, DCF’s interface with campus-wide initiatives including Duke’s climate commitment, and guides the strategic direction of the program.
Annemieke van den Dool is an Assistant Professor of Environmental Policy at Duke Kunshan University. As of 2025, she serves as the Co-Director of the Center for the Study of Contemporary China (CSCC). Her research focuses on the making and implementation of environmental policy in China, which frequently involves students, including as co-authors of articles in high-ranking journals. In 2024, supported by the DKU Summer Research Scholar (SRS) program, she launched a new research initiative on community gardening in China. This has led to a successful poster presentation, an Orientation Week student activity on community gardening, and a video about the DKU Community Garden by DKU Communications. The project was subsequently expanded into a handbook for individuals in China who seek to initiate a community garden, which has been supported by a 2024 CSCC community grant, led by student Zheng Zeng and supervised by Dr. Xingshi Cai, Founder of the DKU Community Garden. Van den Dool’s research on community gardening is embedded in an international collaboration with researchers at Utrecht University in the Netherlands and Mid-Sweden University in Sweden, who use similar research designs. This multi-country design ensures a global impact.
Participants
This initiative is directly relevant to the following faculty and Student Clubs, all of whom we will actively involve in the project and by recruiting student workers for data collection and data analysis. In the broader community, we will invite leaders from campus gardens and farms in China and the USA to join the workshop (virtually if not able to join in person).
Xingshi Cai, Assistant Professor of Mathematics, Founder of DKU Community Garden
Kaley Clements, DKU Assistant Professor of Media and Arts at DKU
Coraline Goron, Assistant Professor of Environmental Policy & Founder of the DKU Sustainability Initiative
Meng Wang, Lecturer of Chinese Language at DKU and member of DKU Community Garden Steering Committee
Ryder Kouba, DKU Archives and Special Collections Librarian
Jiawen Cai, Senior Coordinator of Undergraduate Academic Activities at DKU
Xinxue Wang, student DKU-Duke International Master of Environmental Policy
Zheng Zeng, senior student at DKU majoring in environmental science/public policy
Johann Asmus León, senior student at DKU majoring in environmental science and president of Hive Minds Beekeeping Club
Shaoyu Frank Feng, junior student at DKU majoring in Computation & Design and vice-president of the Sustainable DKU Club
DKU Community Garden, including all faculty, staff, and student gardeners
Duke Campus Farm, including community and faculty members of the Duke Campus Farm Advisory Council, full-time and student staff, and regular student volunteers
Faculty members of the North Carolina Agroecology Educators Network (NC State, Elon, Warren Wilson, Appalachian State, Central Carolina, UNC Pembrooke
