Sarah Cramer
Assistant Professor of Sustainable Food Systems
Sarah Cramer uses qualitative methods to explore the human dimensions of alternative food networks. She is particularly interested in examining school gardens as agents of change within the food system and public education system.
- PhD, agricultural education, University of Missouri
- M.P.H., University of Missouri
- BA, biology, Truman State University
Biography
Sarah Cramer is an assistant professor of sustainable food systems in the Department of Environmental Science and Studies. She is also the Director of Food Studies for the Community Education Project, Stetson's higher education in prison program. Her current work examines the transformative potential of elementary school gardens within both the food system and public education system. Other research interests include critical studies of gender in agriculture, scholarship of teaching and learning, and place-based environmental and food system education.
Cramer enjoys bringing her background in non-formal, experiential education to the college classroom, and has received grants to study critical food system pedagogy. Additionally, she demonstrates her commitment to the everyday praxis of food system transformation through engagement in alternative food networks, beekeeping, gardening, and food preparation and preservation. She earned her PhD in agricultural education and her MPH from the University of Missouri and earned her BA in biology from Truman State University.
More About Sarah Cramer
Areas of Expertise
- Food and agriculture
- Alternative food networks
- Non-formal education
- Garden-based learning
- Beekeeping
Course Sampling
- Introduction to Food Studies
- Seeds of Equity: Exploring race, class, and gender in our food system
- Beginning Practicum for Sustainable Food Production
- FSEM: The Secret Life of Bees
- Scholarship of food and agriculture
- Food system transformation
- Critical food system pedagogies
- Community-engaged scholarship
- Carceral foodways
- Cramer, S. (2025). The garden as resistance: Horticultural skill and human potential behind bars. Outlook on Agriculture.
- Cramer, S. (2025). Tending our shared garden: Imagining carceral food justice in a Florida prison. Agriculture & Human Values.
- Cramer, S. E. & Tichenor, M. (2023). Collaboration and cross-pollination: Teaching garden-based learning through PDS partnerships. PDS Partners: Bridging research to practice.
- Cramer, S. E. (2022). Uprooting injustice: School gardens provide fertile ground for anti-racist education. In R. Shankar-Brown (Ed.), Re-envisioning education: Affirming diversity and advancing social justice. IAP Information Age Publishing
- Schuwerk, T. & Cramer, S. (2022). Repackaging Leftovers: Familiar health, food, and diet messages in influencer Instagram posts. In E. Contois & Z. Kish (Eds.), Food Instagram: Identity, influence, and negotiation. University of Illinois Press.
- Day, C. & Cramer, S. E. (2021). Transforming to a regenerative U.S. agriculture: The role of policy, process, and education. Sustainability Science.
- Cramer, S. E. & Tichenor, M. S. (2021). Just do it: Teachers perspectives on garden-based learning. Kappa Delta Pi Record, 57(3), 138-142.
- Cramer, S. E. (2020). No vegetarians in a pandemic. Gastronomica: The journal for food studies, 20(3), 12-13.
- Cramer, S. (2020). Gaining ground: An exploration into the lives of Missouris lesbian farmers. Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development, 9(3), 1-16.
- Cramer, S. E. & Ball, A. L. (2019). Wild leaves on narrow ST EMs: Exploring formal and non-formal education tensions through garden-based learning. Journal of Agricultural Education, 60(4), 35-52.
- Cramer, S. E., Ball, A. L., & Hendrickson, M. K. (2019). Our school system is trying to be agrarian: Educating for re-skilling and food system transformation in the rural school garden. Agriculture & Human Values, 36(3), 507-519.