Nearly 30 graduate students and faculty members from across North America and Europe are gathered in Tuskegee, Alabama for the 2018 International Comparative Rural Policy (ICRPS) Summer Institute. The summer institute is an opportunity for graduate students to gain new skill sets, capacities, and networks in the field of comparative rural policy. This year’s summer institute theme is “Social Justice, Rural and Natural Resource Policy”. Students will be exposed to rural policy themes related to agriculture, economic development, migration/immigration, governance, and food security.

The International Comparative Rural Policy Consortium compromising of core faculty from 11 universities in Canada, Europe, Mexico, and the USA. The ICRPS Consortium has developed an advanced program to enhance policy formulation and analysis in the rural context. The ICRPS program is the first of its kind that enables students to examine and compare the role of rural policy in different cultural, political and administrative contexts in Europe and North America, as well as the global south. Further information about ICRPS can be found at www.icrps.org.

The University of Guelph is represented by Stephen Penner (PhD candidate in Rural Studies) and Dr. Ryan Gibson (SEDRD). Participating was facilitated by the Rural Policy Learning Commons.