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Loka Ashwood, an associate professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Kentucky, is part of the Class of 2024 MacArthur Foundation Fellows. Ashwood is an alumna of UW–Madison’s Department of Community and Environmental Sociology. © John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation–used with permission.

Loka Ashwood PhD’15, an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Kentucky, is one of two University of Wisconsin–Madison alumni awarded prestigious 2024 MacArthur Fellowships.

Ashwood, whose PhD program is shared by the CALS’ Department of Community and Environmental Sociology and the College of Letters & Science, is being honored by the MacArthur Foundation for “shedding light on rural identity and culture and on the ecological, economic and social challenges facing many rural communities.” Fellows, who receive an $800,000 stipend paid quarterly over five years, are selected by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to acknowledge talented individuals in a variety of fields who have shown exceptional originality and demonstrated the ability to impact society in significant and beneficial ways through the pioneering work or the rigor of their contributions.

Ashwood has studied environmental injustice, corporate and state power, and anti-government sentiment in American rural communities, culminating in several publications and two books: For-Profit Democracy: Why the Government Is Losing the Trust of Rural America and Empty Fields, Empty Promises: A State-by-State Guide to Understanding and Transforming the Right to Farm. Land ownership, Ashwood says, is deeply tied to rural peoples’ sense of security and capacity to feed themselves and their families.

“All of us in Community and Environmental Sociology are so proud of Loka’s unique achievements,” said Nan Enstad, professor and chair of the department. “We’re also pleased that the MacArthur Foundation has recognized a scholar doing the rural community-based research that is at the heart of our discipline.”

In For-Profit Democracy, Ashwood went to Burke County, Georgia where a nuclear power plant had been sited. Through a rural sociological lens, she examined the use of eminent domain to acquire property from rural people to make way for the plant.

In Empty Fields, Empty Promises, Ashwood and her co-authors provided a systematic national analysis of state-level “right to farm” laws, which limit nuisance suits related to agriculture. The book was written as a guide for rural people to understand their local and regional legal landscape, as some states’ “right to farm” laws have been leveraged by larger corporations to dispossess rural people of their land.

“The way that I approach working with communities is understanding their grievance, and helping turn that into a question that would help galvanize action,” says Ashwood in a video produced by the MacArthur Foundation. “I hope that my work will help people have more empathy toward rural communities and their experiences. I hope through seeding that empathy that it also helps produce change.”

While at UW–Madison, Ashwood was advised by Michael Bell (professor, community and environmental sociology), with Jane Collins (emeritus professor, community and environmental sociology), Daniel Kleinman (emeritus professor, community and environmental sociology), Pam Oliver (emeritus professor, sociology, L&S), and Keith Woodward (professor, geography, L&S) serving on the PhD committee.

Also receiving a 2024 MacArthur Fellowship was UW–Madison L&S alumnus Keivan Stassun.