Kaitlyn Spangler, Ph.D.

Kaitlyn Spangler, Ph.D.

  • Assistant Professor of Rural Sociology
105C Armsby Building
University Park, PA 16802

Areas of Expertise

  • Agri-food systems
  • Community development
  • Climate justice
  • Land use change
  • Critical data science
  • Qualitative methodologies

Websites

Education

  • Ph.D., Environment and Society, Utah State University
  • M.S., Geography, Virginia Tech
  • B.S., Community, Environment, and Development, The Pennsylvania State University
  • B.A., Anthropology, The Pennsylvania State University

Research Interests

My scholarship and praxis are anchored in working toward more sustainable, agrobiodiverse landscapes and, therein, more just communities. I aim to disentangle the inequities of agri-food systems and landscapes and to position these landscapes as sites of new socioecological imaginaries, collaborative governance, and community-building. To do so, I use diverse quantitative and qualitative methodologies to integrate “big” geospatial data and “deep” social livelihoods data as tools for cultivating community-engaged research, teaching, and practice.

Publications

Negotiating Rural Energy Transitions in the US: An Energy Quadrilemma Lens, Wiseman, H, Spangler, Kaitlyn, Baka, J, Boyle, Candace, 2026

Legitimating grid-scale solar: shaping Pennsylvania’s farmland as a renewable energy landscape
Sustainability Science, Spangler, Kaitlyn, Baka, Jennifer, Wiseman, H, J. Wiseman, Hannah, Goldberg, Z., A. Goldberg, Zachary, Schoenecker, Kristin, Weinberg, Maya, 2025

Nutritious monocultures? Where and how fruits and vegetables are produced in the US
Global Food Security, Spangler, Kaitlyn, Rissing, A., Burchfield, E., Schumacher, B., Powell, B, Siegel, K., 2025

How Do We Know What We Grow? Unpacking the Datafication of Agricultural Landscapes in the United States
Economic Anthropology, Rissing, A., Spangler, Kaitlyn, 2025

Barriers and opportunities for implementing prescribed fire: lessons from managers in the mid-Atlantic region, United States
Fire Ecology, Smithwick, Erica, Wu, Hong, Spangler, Kaitlyn, Adib, Mahsa, Wang, Rui, Dems, Cody, Taylor, A, Kaye, Margot Wilkinson, Zipp, Katherine, Newman, P, Miller, Zachary, Zhao, Anthony, 2024

Emerging Perspectives of PA Farmers on Agrivoltaics, Buechler, S, Spangler, Kaitlyn, Lopez Olmedo, Karen, Singh, Harman, Birkenholtz, T, Hansen, Matthew, 2024

Implications of US agricultural data practices for sustainable food systems research
Nature Food, Rissing, A., Burchfield, E., Spangler, Kaitlyn, Schumacher, B., 2023

Just energy imaginaries? Examining realities of solar development on Pennsylvania's farmland
Energy Research and Social Science, Spangler, Kaitlyn, Smithwick, Erica, Buechler, Stephanie, Baka, Jennifer, 2023

The State of US Farm Operator Livelihoods
Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems, Burchfield, Emily, Schumacher, Britta, Spangler, Kaitlyn, Rissing, Andrea, 2022

Crop diversification in Idaho’s Magic Valley: the present and the imaginary
Agronomy for Sustainable Development, Spangler, Kaitlyn, Burchfield, E., Radel, C., Jackson-Smith, D., Johnson, R., 2022

Path dependencies in US agriculture: Regional factors of diversification
Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment, Spangler, Kaitlyn, Schumacher, B., Bean, B., Burchfield, E., 2022

(Re-)Defining Permaculture: Perspectives of Permaculture Teachers and Practitioners across the United States
Sustainability, Spangler, Kaitlyn, McCann, R., Ferguson, R., 2021

Life Paths to Leading Systems-Level Change: Higher Education's Pitfalls and Potential
Sustainability and Climate Change, McCann, R., Spangler, Kaitlyn, Millison, A., 2021

Past and Current Dynamics of U.S. Agricultural Land Use and Policy
Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems, Spangler, Kaitlyn, Burchfield, E., Schumacher, B., 2020

Water Availability for Cannabis in Northern California: Intersections of Climate, Policy, and Public Discourse
Water, Morgan, B., Spangler, Kaitlyn, Stuivenvolt Allen, J., Morrisett, C., Brunson, M., Wang, S., Huntly, N., 2020

Power dynamics of the non-operating landowner-renter relationship and conservation decision-making in the Midwestern United States
Journal of Rural Studies, Barnett, M., Spangler, Kaitlyn, Petrzelka, P., Filipiak, J., 2020

Renegotiating gender roles and cultivation practices in the Nepali mid-hills: unpacking the feminization of agriculture
Agriculture and Human Values, Spangler, Kaitlyn, Christie, M., 2019

The impact of agricultural landscape diversification on U.S. crop production
Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment, Burchfield, E., Nelson, K., Spangler, K., 2019