Tessa Lowinske Desmond is an associate research scholar and lecturer in the Effron Center for the Study of America at Princeton University. Her areas of interest include the history of agriculture in the United States, especially agrarian thought and practice, community seed keeping, food sovereignty, regional food systems, migrant farm labor, and food politics. She teaches interdisciplinary courses on the American food system and on multi-ethnic American literature. She is currently at work on a book about community seed saving and ideas of the commons. She has received awards for publicly engaged scholarship and outstanding service to students, including the K. Patricia Cross Future Leaders in Higher Education award given by the American Association of Colleges and Universities to recognize scholars committed to academic and civic responsibility.

As an extension of her intellectual interests, Lowinske Desmond owns a six-acre farm near Princeton and is active in the local food movement. She currently serves on the board of the Northeast Organic Farming Association of New Jersey.

Lowinske Desmond earned her Ph.D. in literary studies and master’s degree in Afro-American studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Prior to her time at Princeton, Lowinske Desmond served as the administrative director and lecturer for the Committee on Ethnicity, Migration, Rights at Harvard University.

Courses offered:

American Agrarians: Ideas of Land, Labor, and Food (advanced seminar)

Multi-Ethnic American Short Stories: Tales We Tell Ourselves (advanced seminar)

Consuming America (freshman seminar)

Saving Seeds (freshman seminar)