Loka Ashwood

Research Interests:

Education

Ph.D., Sociology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2015

M.Litt., Geography, National University of Ireland, 2009

B.S., Journalism and Political Science, Northwestern University, 2007

Research:

Professor Ashwood studies how the state works, often to the ire of rural people. Her book, For-Profit Democracy: Why the Government is Losing the Trust of Rural America (Yale 2018), pinpoints corporate-state land takings as a motivator of rural unrest across racial lines. Her related research pulls apart corporations and property rights to understand environmental injustices. Specifically, she studies monopoly power, eminent domain, corporate landownership, and Right-to-Farm laws. She is especially interested in how social action works, and uses community-based research to find more direct pathways for change.

Ashwood's work feeds into the One Rural collective at University of Kentucky.

Selected Publications:

Books:

Ashwood, L., A. Imlay*, L. Kuehn, A. Franco, and D. Diamond. Forthcoming. Empty Fields, Empty Promises: A State-by-State Guide to Understanding and Transforming the Right to Farm. The University of North Carolina Press.

Bell, M., L. Ashwood, I. Leslie*, L. Hanson Schlachter*. 2021. An Invitation to Environmental Sociology. 6^th Edition. Thousand Oaks, California: Pine Forge Press.

Ashwood, L. 2018. For-Profit Democracy: Why the Government is Losing the Trust of Rural America. New Haven and London: Yale University Press.

Starred review, Publishers Weekly (June 2018).
Fred Buttel 2020 Outstanding Scholarly Achievement Award.
Reviewed by Front Porch Republic (March 2019).
Coverage on C-Span (October 2018), Against the Grain (April 2019).
Author meets critics panel, Rural Sociological Society (August 2019).
Review published in The Journal of Southern History (August 2019); Social Anthropology (August 2019); American Journal of Sociology (October 2019); Two reviews (one comparative and one singular) in Rural Sociology (December 2019).

Bell, M. M. and L. Ashwood. 2016. An Invitation to Environmental Sociology. 5^th Edition. Thousand Oaks, California: Pine Forge Press.

Special Issue Editor/Introduction:

Journal of Rural Studies, Special Issue “Rural as a Dimension of Environmental Injustice.” Volume 47 A. Co-editor with Kate MacTavish.

Ashwood, L. and Kate MacTavish. 2016. “Tyranny of the Majority and Rural Environmental Injustice.” Journal of Rural Studies 47(A): 271-277.

Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles:

Ashwood, L., Vick, KC*, C. Hiett, M. Lee and N. Damova. Forthcoming. “Rural and Community-Based Cancer Cluster Research.” Environmental Justice.

- University Kentucky press release on “Rural and Community-Based Cancer Cluster Research” covered by CBS 42, Birmingham; the Daily Mail; and Rick and Bubba.

Ashwood, L., A. Pilny, J. Canfield*, M. Jamila, and R. Thomson. 2022. “From Big Ag to Big Finance: A Market Network Approach to Power in Agriculture.” Agriculture and Human Values 39(4): 1421-1434.

- Covered by Ambrook Research in February 2023.

Ashwood, L., J. Canfield*(co-first author), M. Fairbairn, K. De Master. 2022. “What owns the land: the corporate organization of farmland investment.” Journal of Peasant Studies 49(2): 233-262.

- Lead Article.
- Covered by Investigate Midwest. Also broadcasted across the country through local TV station affiliates of InvestigateTV in 2022.

Ashwood, L. 2021. “‘No matter if you’re a Democrat or a Republican or neither’: pragmatic politics in opposition to industrial animal production.” Journal of Rural Studies 82: 586-594.

- Covered and hyperlinked to by The Los Angeles Times in 2022.

Fairbairn, M. J. LaChance*, K. De Master, and L. Ashwood. 2021. “In vino veritas, in aqua lucrum: Farmland investment, environmental uncertainty, and groundwater access in California’s Cuyama Valley.” Agriculture and Human Values 38: 285-299.

Ashwood, L., D. Diamond, and F. Walker*. 2019. “Property Rights and Rural Justice: A Study of U.S. Right-to-Farm Laws.” Journal of Rural Studies 67: 120-129.

- PlumX Metrics: Top Social Media Article.
- Opinion-Editorial, Environmental Health Network, “Right-to-Farm laws run counter to rural culture and property rights.”
- Coverage in Huffington Post, Pacific Standard Magazine, Pew Charitable Trusts, and others.

Ashwood, L. 2018. “Rural Conservatism or Anarchism? The Pro-State, Stateless and Anti-State Positions.” Rural Sociology 83(4): 717-748.

- Lead Article.
- Top 20 downloaded articles, 2017-2018

Ashwood, L. and M.M. Bell. 2017. “Affect and Taste: Bourdieu, Traditional Music, and the Performance of Possibilities.” Sociologia Ruralis 57(S1): 622-640.

Ashwood, L. and Steve Wing. 2016. “Exposure and Compensation for Nuclear Weapons Workers.” New Solutions 26(1): 55-71.

Ashwood, L., N. Harden, M. M. Bell, and W. Bland. 2014. “Linked and Situated: Grounded Knowledge.” Rural Sociology 79(4): 427-452.

- Rural Sociology 2015 Best Paper Award.
- Lead Article.

Ashwood, L., D. Diamond, and K. Thu. 2014. “Where’s the Farmer? Limiting Liability in Midwest Industrial Hog Production.” Rural Sociology 79(1): 2-27.

- Lead Article.
- Covered by The Daily Yonder and the Open Markets Institute’s Food & Power.
- In 2022, covered by Civil Eats, in one article on worker conditions in industrial animal facilities and another on federal OSHA protections.

Harden, N., L. Ashwood, M. M. Bell, and W. Bland. 2013. “For the Public Good: Weaving a Multifunctional Landscape in the Cornbelt.” Agriculture and Human Values 30(4): 525-537.

- Early Version Winner of 2009 Agriculture, Human Values, and Society Graduate Student Paper Competition.
- Early Version Winner of 2009 International Symposium on Society and Natural Resources Doctoral Student Paper Competition.

College of Arts & Sciences

Sociology

Loka Ashwood