For Academics
Academic Membership in Common Ground is for academics who:
- Have completed an MA and/or PhD (including All But Dissertation)
- Are presently working part-time or full-time in, seeking work in, or retired from a Canadian academic or research institution
- Have conducted research that aligns with and advances understandings of Common Ground’s basic assumption: that sustainable agriculture and food systems exist in dynamic relation with a host of other social systems and structures such as rural-urban economic and political relations, labour markets, trade, social inequality, struggles for sovereignty, transportation, (im)migration, climate, and more
- Use social scientific and/or humanities approaches or lenses in their food systems work
As long as they meet the above criteria, the inventory is open to:
- Canadian and Indigenous academics who are housed in a university/research institution inside and outside of Canada
- Researchers in SSH and non-SSH disciplines.
Membership Benefits include:
- Listed in members-only academic database by expertise
- Access to Common Ground’s searchable members-only database of academic researchers
- Access to Food Communities Network’s database of non-profit actors, projects and community research
- Access to a trainee database (to post and/or peruse job listings for RAships and post-doctoral fellowships)
- The Common Ground newsletter (members can receive and contribute items relevant to the network). Approximately 6 per year
- Opportunities to participate in collaborative research and events in areas of interest (see Our Work)
- Opportunity to provide expertise into social science and humanities questions from all tiers of government (including AAFC, Fisheries, National Food Advisory), NGOs working at all tiers, and from the business sector
To become an Academic Member, please fill in this survey.
For Non-Profits
The Common Ground network connects community-led, non-profit organizations working on food systems transformation with academic researchers who can partner on or otherwise support the community’s research needs. We do this via our own partnership with Food Communities Network (FCN), a coast-to-coast-to-coast network of 400+ community actors who are actively working to improve food systems. CGCN and FCN work together on a variety of initiatives, while also tailoring opportunities and communications to our respective memberships so that each gets the information they need.
FCN connects four core groups of actors working on community-wide solutions in their large, small, rural and remote cities/municipalities/towns/regions:
- Community-wide, non-profit, social purpose groups working on broader food system and/or governance issues
- Food policy groups working at local levels (informal or formal)
- Youth food policy groups (informal or formal)
- Leadership and staff within local government (settler and Indigenous governments)
- Public Health workers
If you are a non-profit working on community-wide solutions in your community, please add your expertise and join Food Communities Network. Membership in FCN grants you access to the CGCN’s inventory of academic experts and will keep you informed of relevant updates and initiatives from CGCN in addition to the unique benefits of FCN membership.
For Governments
Have a food systems question you are grappling with? Contact Common Ground!
Governments at any tier, including both settler and Indigenous, are invited to share social sciences and humanities-related inquiries with the Common Ground network. We can direct your question to hundreds of researchers with the expertise to help you answer it.
For Students
Research Assistant and Post-Doctoral Fellowship positions will be available over the first five years of this network. They will be posted in this section as they arise. (Please do not email to inquire about future postings—they will be advertised here as soon as they are available.)
If you are a prospective graduate student interested in food systems looking for an academic supervisor in the social sciences or humanities, please feel free to reach out and we can offer suggestions.
If you are interested in paid work in the community, please see Foodwork.ca