Unsupported Browser

Your Browser is out of date and is not supported by this website.
Please upgrade to Firefox, Chrome, or Microsoft Edge.

The Founding College of the University of Toronto
Headshot of Sarah Wakefield, staring off to the side of the camera, wearing a grey jacket and shirt.

Sarah Wakefield

Faculty
PhD
Professor, Department of Geography & Planning
416-978-3653
B101
Campus: St. George

Sarah Wakefield current research has two main themes: food activism, policy and practice; and, improving neighbourhood health equity through participatory community development. These areas are connected by an overarching interest in understanding how individuals and organizations work together to create healthy, just, and sustainable communities. She grounds her work in local contexts and communities of practitioners, to maximize the impact of her research.

Education

  • PhD, McMaster University

Research Interests

  • Food access and security
  • sustainable agriculture
  • community development
  • environmental justice/just sustainability
  • urban health inequalities

Publications

  • Pothier, M., Christy, K., Wakefield, S. and Borstad Klassen, S. 2019. Is “including them” enough? How narratives of race and class shape participation in a resident-led neighbourhood revitalization initiative. Geoforum, 98, 161-169.
  • Whetung, M. and Wakefield, S. 2018. “Colonial Conventions: Institutionalized Research Relationships and Decolonizing Research Ethics”. In Linda Tuhiwai Smith, Eve Tuck, and K. Wayne Yang (eds), Indigenous and Decolonizing Studies in Education: Mapping the Long View. London: Routledge.
  • Cahuas, M.C., Malik, M., and Wakefield, S. 2016. When is Helping Hurting? Understanding and Challenging the (Re)Production of Dominance in Narratives of Health, Place, and Difference in Hamilton, Ontario. In Giesbrecht, M.D. & Crooks, V.A. (Eds.) Place, Health, and Diversity: Learning from the Canadian Experience. London: Routledge. Chapter 8.
  • Wakefield, S. Fredrickson, K. and Brown, T. 2015. Food security and health in Canada: Imaginaries, exclusions and possibilities. The Canadian Geographer 59(1): 82–92.
  • Wakefield, S. 2007. Reflective action in the academy: exploring praxis in critical geography using a “food movement” case study. Antipode. 39(2), 331-354.