Mary Beckie

Contact

Professor, School of Public Health

Email: mbeckie@ualberta.ca
Phone: (780) 492-5153
Address: Edmonton Clinic Health Academy
11405 87 Ave NW

Edmonton AB

T6G 1C9

Overview

About

Dr. Mary Beckie is a Professor and Director of Community Engagement Studies in the School of Public Health at the University of Alberta.

She holds an interdisciplinary doctorate in Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development from the University of Saskatchewan. Current teaching and research focuses on community engagement and sustainable community development, particularly as relates to regenerative, equitable and place-based agri-food systems. Mary’s research is predominantly community-engaged and in partnership with community, and has taken place in western Canada, Cuba, Sri Lanka, India, and the UK.

Mary’s work has been published in a variety of journals dealing with alternative agri-food systems, community development and engaged scholarship including: Agriculture and Human Values; Rural Sociology; Agriculture, Food Systems and Community Development; Local Environment; Community Development; and Community Engagement and Scholarship. She is co-editor of Scaling Up: Convergence of Social Economy and Sustainability (2016; Athabasca U Press) and Sustainability Planning and Collaboration in Rural Canada: Taking the Next Steps (2016; U of Alberta Press).

Mary grew up on a farm in south central Saskatchewan. Her first career path focused on the natural sciences and following the completion of a BSc in Biology and a MSc in Molecular Genetics she was involved in teaching and agricultural biotechnology research in post-secondary and federal research institutions. Her interest in alternative agri-food systems and sustainable development led to a career change and her enrolment in the PhD program described above.

Digging in the dirt and growing food is one of Mary’s favorite past-times and when possible she tries to incorporate opportunities to do this while teaching and researching.

Research

scholarship of engagement
sustainable development
social learning, communities of practice, knowledge and power
regenerative, equitable and place-based agri-food systems
social movements
interdisciplinary research
experiential learning

Teaching

theory and practice of sustainable community development
sustainable and localized food systems
citizen engagement and community capacity building
alternative learning environments and transformative learning
Research methods: case-study, Delphi, mixed method, community-based research

Courses

INT D 541 - CBRE Experience

Students will participate in a supervised field experience and demonstrate the integration of concepts, principles and approaches learned in INT D 500 Introduction to Community-Based Research and evaluation. Students will prepare a knowledge-sharing activity appropriate to the field experience setting. Normally students will be expected to complete all of their CBRE Graduate Certificate course requirements prior to enrolling in INT D 541. Open to students in the CBRE Graduate Embedded Certificate only.

Winter Term 2025

MACE 502 - Theoretical Foundations of the Scholarship of Engagement

An examination of the theoretical foundations (e.g., Marxism, Post/Anti-Colonialism, Feminism) that have shaped the study and practice of community engagement. Students will explore this through a broad spectrum of disciplines and themes. A required course for students in the Master of Arts in Community Engagement program; others interested must seek consent of the instructor.

Fall Term 2024

MACE 599A - Directed Capstone Project

A community-engaged (applied) culminating project. Restricted to MACE students in the course-based route.

Fall Term 2024 Winter Term 2025

MACE 599B - Directed Capstone Project

A community-engaged (applied) culminating project. Restricted to MACE students in the course-based route.

Fall Term 2024 Winter Term 2025

Browse more courses taught by Mary Beckie

Featured Publications

Scaling Up: The Convergence of Social Economy and Sustainability

Mike Gismondi, Sean Connelly, Mary Beckie, Sean Markey, Mark Roseland

Book. 2016 January;

Taking the Next Steps: Sustainability Planning and Collaboration in Rural Canada

Lars Hallstrom, Mary Beckie, Glen Hvenengaard, Karsten Mundel

Book. 2016 January;

Catalyzing change in local food system governance in Calgary, Alberta: The role of YYC Growers and Distributors Cooperative.

Beckie, M. & Bacon, E.

Book chapter.

Duelling discourses of sustainability: Neo-conventional and organic farming on the Canadian Prairies. In Douglas Constance, Jason Konefal & Maki Hatanaka (Eds), Contested sustainability discourses in the agrifood system. Earthscan Food and Agriculture. Abington, UK: Routledge.

Gertler, M., Jaffe, J. & Beckie, M.

Engaging with Cuba’s permaculture movement through transformative learning. In People’s Knowledge Editorial Collective (Eds). Everyday Experts: How people’s knowledge can transform the food system (pp. 203 – 218). Reclaiming Diversity and Citizenship Series. Coventry: Coventry University.

Beckie, M. & Berezan, R.

Establishing sustainable food production communities of practice: Nutrition gardening and pond fish farming in the Kolli Hills, India.

Hudson, R., Beckie, M.A., Krogman, N., Gow, G.

Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems and Community Development. 8 (4):137-151