Destiny Treloar's Qualifying Exam

Destiny Treloar will stand for the Qualifying Examination for acceptance into candidacy for the Ph.D. degree on Thursday, April 24 at 3:00 p.m. in Sage 41c. All faculty (only faculty) are welcome and invited to attend. A copy of Destiny’s dissertation prospectus and qualifying exam questions and answers can be obtained from the Doctoral Program Office (contact: elisabeth.barsa@yale.edu).
Committee members:
• Prof. Dorceta Taylor (Chair)
• Prof. Kerry Ard (The Ohio State Univ.)
• Prof. Christopher Boone (Univ. Southern California)

Instructions
Please type your response single-spaced in 12-point font using one-inch margins.
Please cite all the information used in each response as it is mentioned in the essay. Cite your work thoroughly.

Avoid plagiarism by rephrasing and expressing the ideas you are discussing or using in your own words.

Please put a complete reference list immediately following each response. Hence, you will have three lists of references. You may use a given citation and reference in more than one of the responses. If, for instance, you use Metzer et al. 2003 in all three responses, the citation should appear in all three responses, and the full reference should also appear in the reference list of all three responses.

Alphabetize the references in each list. Ensure each reference is complete (including hyperlinked DOI numbers and URLs for journal articles and other sources that have them).
You can choose which citation style to use. However, once you pick a style, use it consistently throughout the exam. Do not mix different citation styles.
Please insert any diagrams, tables, figures, charts, graphics, etc., in the response after they were referenced. Please make direct references to any inserts in brackets. For example, (see Table 4). If these are not your original work, please put a full citation under each.
Edit your work thoroughly. Use Grammarly or other software editing programs to help you with your editing. Such software also helps you keep your citation style consistent and correct.
Do not use Artificial Intelligence (AI) to generate the content of your responses. Such software can help with editing, translating, and finding synonyms and antonyms but may not be used to compose the responses.

Number of Questions to Answer
Please answer three questions in total. Answer two questions from Section I and one from Section II. Please answer each part of each question chosen.

Section I: Theoretical Frameworks, Methodologies, and Research Approaches
Do one question from this section.

1. Early environmental justice scholarship focused on the inequitable and unjust distribution of toxins and wastes in marginalized communities.
a. Identify and discuss pre-1980s food justice activism that helped inform Environmental Justice (EJ) frameworks.
b. How has that groundbreaking Environmental Justice (EJ) scholarship furthered food justice scholarship?
c. How can and does food justice extend EJ research in terms of theories, methods, and concepts?

2. What tools and methods are used to measure the efficacy of formal and informal institutions for achieving food justice?
a. What are the gaps in current evaluation methods?
b. What approaches show promise for measuring cause-and-effect (rather than only correlation) of interventions for food equity and justice?
c. Discuss how measurements of food insecurity and food justice differ in industrialized countries and countries in the Global South. Discuss the implications.

3. Distinguish between each of the following concepts and discuss scholarly literature that supports or refutes the claims made in each concept.
a. Food insecurity, food access, hunger, locally grown food, food justice, food sovereignty, food desert, food swamp, food oasis, and vanishing food infrastructure.
b. Discuss the demographic characteristics of the urban agriculture, farmers’ markets, and community gardening movements.
c. What are the implications of the demographic profile you identified, and how can local food movements more effectively address food insecurity and access?

Section II: History, social structure, policies, and governance.
Do two questions from this section.
4. How have neoliberal economic policies (e.g., Reagan-era tax cuts, welfare reform) reshaped the role of government in food assistance?
a. What are the long-term consequences of these policies for food justice?
b. In your response, critically assess the extent to which your findings are generalizable across different geographic, political, and economic contexts, situating your case studies within these broader contexts.

5. How do racial and class-based disparities in land use policies, particularly historical patterns of exclusion like redlining, shape food justice and contribute to ongoing food insecurity in urban areas?
a. What structural factors drive disparities in food access today, and to what extent can they be traced back to these historical legacies?
b. How do contemporary food justice activists respond to these policies and practices in responding to food insecurity in their communities?

6. Discuss the history and evolution of food assistance in the U.S.
a. What role did charities, religious institutions, and local governments play in alleviating hunger and addressing residents' food needs during the 19th century?
b. How was food assistance thought of and administered by government and nongovernmental organizations and groups from the 1900-1950s?
c. Discuss how government and nongovernmental food assistance has evolved since the 1960s.

YSE Office of Research | Website | View More Events

Contact the organizers