Michael Classens is the undergraduate associate director at the School of the Environment. His research focuses on food systems transformation, social and environmental justice, and critical food systems pedagogy. In his courses, he specializes in community-based learning, informal learning outside the classroom, and integrating multiple sources of knowledge, including community-based knowledge. In 2024 he received the Faculty of Arts & Science Outstanding Teaching Award – Early Career.
You are the part of a group that received a $3.9M NSERC-SSRHC Sustainable Agriculture Research Initiative grant for the project Toward sustainable urban and peri-urban agriculture for net-zero food systems. Can you define urban and peri-urban agriculture? What are some of the outcomes you would like to see from this project?
As it turns out, defining urban and peri-urban agriculture isn’t as straightforward as we first thought! Our geographic focus for the project is the Greater Toronto Area, so we’re using administrative geographies to bound and focus the project, which is helpful at this early stage. Ultimately, we’re hoping the project leads to a variety of outcomes – from network development and strengthening among practitioners/advocates/activists and researchers, through to program interventions and policy initiatives. Given that the project is grounded in community relationships, many of the outcomes will be guided by community partners.
Your research also focuses on environmental injustice. Can you elaborate a bit on that? Are there any solutions?
Environmental injustice is basically the idea that environmental benefits and harms are unevenly distributed based on one’s social location. So, access to a healthy environment is raced, classed, gendered, etc. Using environmental injustice as a lens also allows us to look at how contributions and responses to environmental issues (such as climate change) are also unequal. In other words, corporations and the ultrawealthy contribute to the environmental crises we face far more than most people do, and they’re also most insulated from the impacts of climate change. For many decades the environmental movement generally didn’t acknowledge this – and this was an analytic and empirical oversight, but also a strategic misstep in that many, many people were alienated from the movement because they didn’t feel included in it. Movements for environmental justice that are equitable, inclusive, and intersectional represent genuine solutions to environmental injustice.
As the undergraduate associate director, what do you see as the value of the undergraduate programs offered at the School?
I’d actually be interested to hear students respond to this question! I suspect that there are different categories of value. For example, there is hopefully some instrumental value in that students graduate from our programs well prepared to make positive contributions to the world, while also being able to thrive (emotionally, personally, and financially). I think there is also great intellectual value in coming to an interdisciplinary unit, with courses and experts from across the sciences, social sciences, and humanities. And, finally, there is community value in enrolling in our programs. The School, along with various active student groups including the Environmental Students’ Union (ENSU) and the University of Toronto Environmental Resource Network (UTERN), put a lot of effort into co-creating inclusive, diverse, and supportive communities. These kinds of communities are really important strategies for staying well in the midst of such challenging times.
How do you approach your teaching? Has it changed over time?
This is a tough one and I can think of so many ways to respond! I think, to keep things brief, one thing to say is that I approach teaching with gratitude and humility. It’s truly an honour to teach and learn with students – I’m very grateful for the opportunity to engage in what feels like meaningful work.
You developed the course The Edible Campus–What can students expect to learn? Why is this important?
I co-developed this course with students, a process we documented in a recent article in the journal Radical Teacher. Engaging in a curriculum co-creation process with students was a methodological choice, but also a pedagogical one. It builds on this idea by the pedagogical scholar, Paulo Freire, who argued that we’re all teachers and we’re all learners. So, one thing I think students can expect to learn in this course is that they’re also teachers! The content of the course focuses on how postsecondary campuses contribute (or not) to realizing food justice. I should mention we also cook and eat together in the class! Commensality – the practice of sharing food and eating together – is a key part of the pedagogical philosophy of the course. So, come for the homemade tomato sauce, stay for the critical campus food studies theory!
How do you like to relax?
Basketball: shooting baskets, watching basketballs games, listening to basketball podcasts, reading about basketball.
What book has made an impact on you?
Oh, this is tough. Too many books, so I think I’ll have to cheat on this one and name a few that come most immediately to mind. Basically, every book by the great pedagogical scholar and activist bell hooks, especially Teaching to Transgress and Teaching Community. I’ve learned a lot about storytelling and the power of speculative fiction from Octavia Butler’s work, especially Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents. Henry Giroux’s work, including Theory and Resistance in Education: Towards a Pedagogy for the Opposition is essential reading for understanding the political and cultural contexts of knowledge production, and the power of education in movement building.