In A World-Threatening Feeling: Grief, Moral Injury, and Institutional Loss in Rural Courts, author Michele Statz (Minnesota Medical School and Minnesota Law) examines how technologies first implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic continue to reshape rural judicial systems. Statz argues these tools contribute to a loss of connection between rural judges, attorneys, court staff, and parties which further undermines the sense of purpose many rural practitioners once felt in their work.

In Rural Geography I: Why Should Rural Geographers ‘Care’?Susanne Stenbacka (Human Geography, Uppsala University, Sweden) explores the existing literature discussing the concept of care and its intersection with rural geography. Stenbacka encourages rural geographers to incorporate care theory into their research, arguing that care can be used both as a tool and a lens through which to view the challenges faced by rural spaces.

A periodic collection of recent research, analysis, and other notable rural items.

In Natural Resource Policy and Collaborative Processes, Crystal M. Callahan and Katherine M. Himes (both Public Policy Research, University of Idaho) advocate for introducing collaborative governance to the natural resource policy process. The authors explore several successful Idaho case studies in which collective governance was utilized to address “wicked problems” plaguing Idaho’s natural resource policy.

Sarah Vogel’s The Farmer’s Lawyer: The North Dakota Nine and the Fight to Save the Family Farm covers litigation from the farm crisis of the 1980s. Vogel begins by declaring the book to be “a memoir of a lawsuit I brought against the federal government.” In this book review, Professor Hannah Haksgaard explores how The Farmer’s Lawyer is indeed a memoir, but it is also so much more.

In The Dark Side of the Balloon: Restrictions on Foreign Investment in US Farmland, Sarah Everhart (Delaware Law) argues that legislators should shift their focus from preventing foreign ownership of US farmland to supporting domestic farmers’ access to farmland.

In Rural Politics in the United States, authors Trevor E. Brown and Suzanne Mettler (both Government, Cornell University) survey recent literature on rural politics and recommend a broader lens to better understand the impact of place on voters. They discuss the current state of rural politics literature, how to measure place and rurality, the role of public opinion, and recommend a comparative approach for future rural studies.

In Women smallholders build an agroecology food system: the construction of empowerment and food sovereignty, Chukwuma Ume, Ernst-August Nuppenau, Stéphanie Domptail (all Agricultural Policy and Market Research, Justus-Liebig University Giessen), and Stefan Wahlen (Consumer Research, Communication and Food Sociology, Justus-Liebig University Giessen) investigate the relation between women smallholder farmers food systems and the global industrialization of agri-food systems.

A periodic collection of recent research, analysis, and other notable rural items.

In Provincial Diffusion, National Acceptance: The Transfer of Conservation Easement Policy in Canada, author Forrest Hisey (Geography, Geomatics, and Environment, University of Toronto) surveys the development of conservation easement (CE) legislation development in Canada to understand the state of CE policy as well as policy diffusion methods leading to this development.

A reading list of rural-related literature curated by the Rural Reconciliation Project. This collection explores how national mythmaking extracts and appropriates rural narratives for its own purposes.

Call for Papers - Concentrated Economic Power and Rural Democracy - Interdisciplinary Workshop Hosted by Jessica Shoemaker and the Rural Reconciliation Project in Lincoln, Nebraska, in spring 2026.