Bio

Laura-Anne Minkoff-Zern is the Associate Director of the Institute for the Study of Societal Issues (ISSI) at the University of California, Berkeley. She is a human geographer and food systems scholar. Her research and teaching explore the intersections among social movements, labor, migration, and food systems, with particular attention to cross-border knowledge and social justice. Minkoff-Zern’s newest book, Will Work for Food: Labor Across the Food Chain (UC Press, 2025), looks at labor across food sectors and the intersections between food-system social movements and worker organizing in the United States. Other recent projects include investigating the potential for Food Policy Councils to engage in regional labor advocacy and the impact of US immigration policy on food workers and employers, including the H-2A visa program for temporary agricultural workers. Her first book, The New American Farmer: Immigration, Race, and the Struggle for Sustainability (MIT Press, 2019) analyzes the experiences of Latinx farmers who have transitioned from farm labor to farm ownership across the United States. 

In 2024, Minkoff-Zern was named a fellow of the American Association of Geographers (AAG). She served as the Graduate Director of Food Studies at Syracuse University from 2020-2025 where she is also an Associate Professor of Geography and the Environment. Minkoff-Zern earned her Ph.D. in Geography from the University of California, Berkeley, and her B.A. in Sustainable Agriculture and Development from Cornell University. She has experience laboring on farms, in restaurants, and feeding her own family at home.