American Association of Geographers designates Environment professor as Honorary Geographer
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Dr. Jennifer Clapp has been named the Honorary Geographer for her groundbreaking work at the intersection of global economy, food systems and food security, along with her sustained commitment to international policy. The American Association of Geographers (AAG) confers this award annually to recognize excellence in research, teaching or writing on geographic topics by non-geographers.
Dr. Clapp is a professor and Canada Research Chair in Global Food Security and Sustainability in the School of Environment, Resources and Sustainability at the University of Waterloo. Her impactful work focuses on the ways in which the extreme concentration of corporate and financial power in the global economy contributes to problems of hunger and environmental degradation, especially for the world’s poorest and most marginalized populations. Dr. Clapp’s research also identifies ways in which international policy reforms can address economic power imbalances to better support world food security and environmental sustainability. She has published widely on these themes, including her recent books Titans of Industrial Agriculture (MIT Press, 2025), Food, 3rd edition (Polity, 2020), and Hunger in the Balance (Cornell University Press, 2012).
She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and an International Fellow of the Swedish Royal Academy of Agriculture and Forestry. She has also received numerous awards for her interdisciplinary research, including a Killam Research Fellowship, the Innis-Gérin Medal for contributions to Social Sciences from the Royal Society of Canada, a Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation Fellowship, the Canada Council for the Arts Molson Prize, and the Canadian Association for Food Studies Award for Excellence in Research.
In addition to her scholarly work, Dr. Clapp has engaged extensively in the international policy context. She is currently a member of the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems (IPES-Food) and a member of the Scientific Advisory Committee of the UN Food Systems Coordination Hub. From 2019-2023, she served as a member of the Steering Committee of the High Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition that provides scientifically-based policy advice to the United Nations Committee on World Food Security, and she served as Vice-Chair of that body from 2021-2023.
On March 20, 2026, Dr. Clapp will receive her award at the 2026 AAG Annual Meeting where she will also deliver a keynote address on corporate concentration and power in the global food system.
Congratulations Dr. Clapp!
