Dudley, Mary Jo

Senior Extension Associate
Mary Jo Dudley is the Director of the Cornell Farmworker Program (a collaborative effort of CALS, CHE and CCE), and a faculty member of the Department of Development Sociology. She has extensive research interests in immigrant workers, farmworkers, US-Latin American relations, migration from Latin America to the US, and immigrant communities in the US. She is currently involved capacity building within the farmworker community in New York State. She is also engaged in research on farmworkers’ contributions, farmworkers` perceptions about life in their new communities, farmworker empowerment, and gender and participation. She is a co-author of the “Farmworker Women’s Equity Project”, a national research effort based on in-depth interviews with farmworkers to understand how farmworker women envision their futures.

research

research and scholarship focus

Mary Jo Dudley?s research focus is on the needs of farmworkers in New York State. Her research interests include farmworker empowerment, gender and participation, demographic studies, immigration issues, farmworker health, and Latino cultural understandings. She is also engaged in research on the New York State apple industry.

research areas

international geographic focus

domestic geographic focus

submitted impact statement

affiliations

head of

administrative appointment

academic staff in

teaching

teaching focus

During Spring 2007, she supervised and provided instruction to three students through independent studies, and served a primary advisor to one student conducting research for a senior honors thesis. During summer 2007 she provided instruction to 17 CFP summer interns through instructional meetings, and continued to provide instructional support for student research related to the CFP summer internships Program. During Fall 2007 she taught DSOC 494: Farmworkers: Contemporary Issues and Their Implications, and continued to serve a primary advisor for the completion of a Senior honors thesis. She also provided instruction to Cornell extentionists, agricultural educators and producers through Cornell Cooperative Extension (CCE) in-service and commodity focused workshops throughout the year.

service

outreach focus

MMary Jo Dudley?s extension efforts include addressing farmworker needs through on-farm workshops on language instruction, New York State and federal laws, immigration issues as they relate to farmworkers, as part of her broader efforts to build capacity among the farmworker community. Her extension activities also include education on diversity issues, and workshops to improve communication between farmworkers, their employers, and members of the communities in which they live. During 2007 her extension activities included the further development of the farmworker service directory for New York State, collaborations with CCE county associations to expand their capacity to address farmworker needs, and the provision of student support for farmworker service providers through the CFP summer internship program. She also conducted several workshops with employers and service providers to share her research results regarding what farmworkers see as their greatest needs.
Keywords: agricultural labor, collaborative research to address farmworker needs, cornell farmworker program, culture and farm labor, development sociology, farmworker needs, farmworkers, gender, hispanic communities and immigration issues, hispanic farmworkers, immigrant workers, latin american migration to the US, US-Latin american relations