Curriculum Vitae: www.garynabhan.com

Personal home page: www.garynabhan.com

Interests: food geography; political ecology; sustainable agriculture and fisheries; biodiversity conservation; ethnobotany; conservation sociology/reconciliation ecology; local food systems

Research

My research focuses on agricultural and food biodiversity and related traditional ecological knowledge, their geographic patterns of origin and diffusion as well as loss. In particular, I am interested in participatory strategies for in situ conservation of heritage foods, both wild and cultivated. In addition, I have begun studying cross-cultural trade and diffusion of rare place-based heritage foods and spices, especially when that trade is mediated by Arabic Moslem and Sephardic Jewish traders. My applied research and community service involve bolstering and diversifying local food systems, and promoting community-based conservation of place-based heritage foods.

Project Involvement

Sabores Sin Fronteras/Flavors Without Borders---A borderlands alliance of researchers and practitioners celebrating and documenting food, farming and ranching folkways in the U.S./Mexico borderlands. With Maribel Alvarez, Kimi Eisele, and Yajaira Gray, co-coordinators. See www.borderlore.arizona.edu.

Renewing America 's Food Traditions collaborative—A multi-year effort based at Slow Food USA to document, conserve and promote North America 's unique foods at risk. Founder, facilitator; see www.slowfoodusa.org

Saving the Wide Open Spaces---An applied research collaborative to maintain the integrity of working landscapes in the West. With Thomas Sheridan, David Siebert, and others.

Where Our Food Comes From---An analysis of agro-biodiversity change in 11 countries since the time of visits by N.I. Vavilov, and the basis of a fall 2008 book from Island Press. Author/analyst on behalf of Christensen Fund.

Trading Spices: How Arab and Jewish Spice Traders Reshaped Regional Cuisines and Landscapes. An initial inquiry into Arab and Jewish spice traders in the New World, with preliminary results in Arab/American, from University of Arizona Press.