The Centre for Critical Development Studies hosted the annual Al Berry lecture on Wednesday, September 25, 2019, at the University of Toronto Scarborough. The aim of the lecture was to provide students with an opportunity to learn about the food, agriculture, conflict and development in the Arab World and explore the region’s political economy/ecology of food and its evolution since the “Arab Spring. The Centre hosted a pre-lecture reception with the speaker, faculty, alumni, and current International Development Studies 5th year Co-op students. The 5th year IDS Co-op Students had the opportunity to engage and talk about their placement experiences with Prof. Rami Zurayk, IDS alumni and faculty. This year’s Al Berry lecture was delivered by Prof. Rami Zurayk, who is a professor at the Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences at the American University of Beirut and chairperson of the department of Landscape Design and Ecosystem Management.
Dr. Rami Zurayk is a professor at the Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences at the American University of Beirut and chairperson of the department of Landscape Design and Ecosystem Management. He is a member of the Steering Committee of the High-Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition (HLPE) of the Committee of World Food Security (CFS), and a commissioner on the EAT-Lancet commission on sustainable diets from sustainable food systems. He is a founding member of the Arab Food Sovereignty Network, an advisory board member of SEAL (Social and Economic Action for Lebanon) and an advisory board member for the Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems and Community Development. He has worked and written extensively on the Arab World, focusing on the political ecology of Arab food security and its linkages with the agrarian question. His latest work on the subject includes: Crisis and Conflict in Agriculture (CABI, 2018), The Agrarian Roots of the Arab Uprisings (with Anne Gough, Cambridge, 2014); Control Food, Control People: The Struggle for Food Security in Gaza (with Anne Gough, IPS, 2013) Food, Farming and Freedom: Sowing the Arab Spring (Just World Books, 2011). He obtained his BSc and MSc from the American University of Beirut and his DPhil from Oxford University.