Nils is a researcher in UVM’s Institute for Agroecology. His work focuses on agroecological farmer movements and transitions in Latin America, and how they interact with other geographies (e.g. Vermont, California, etc.). With the Global Collaborative for Resilient Food Systems program, he supports research in Ecuador, Bolivia, and Peru, including analyses of transition and participatory action research (PAR) processes. He writes about the political economy of food systems, critical pedagogy, decolonial and geopolitical change. His approach is guided by over a decade of work within, and/or in solidarity with, farmer and farmworker movements in Cuba, Nicaragua, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and Canada, as an agroecological popular educator and communications worker with La Via Campesina.
Nils holds a BA in Environmental Studies from the University of California in Santa Cruz (UCSC), a Masters in Sustainable Agriculture from the Universidad Central de las Villas (UCLV) in Cuba, a PhD in Ecology and Sustainable Development with mention in Agroecology from El Colegio de la Frontera Sur (ECOSUR) in Mexico and a previous post-doc fellowship with the School of Natural Resources and the Environment of the University of Michigan. He is a co-founder and Visiting Professor of the Agroecological Institute of Latin America (IALA) Ixim Ulew in Nicaragua.
Contact: nils.mccune@uvm.edu