Interdisciplinary Approaches to Higher Education and Food Safety in International Development in Agriculture

The following dissertation contains a series of articles from a diverse set of research experiences over my five years as a PhD student at Purdue University. Each of the following articles relay how my interdisciplinary studies in food safety, gender, and higher education contribute to a comprehensive understanding of international development in agriculture. After an introductory chapter, chapters two and three include systematic literature review articles on the state of food safety in Lao PDR and Cambodia. Each review discusses available knowledge and potential development opportunities surrounding food safety, a significant threat to public health, especially in low- and middle-income countries. Building upon the food safety literature, chapters four and five are based upon research aimed at reducing foodborne illnesses in Cambodia’s informal vegetable value chain. Toward this end, the chapters present two articles that study the lives of Cambodian women vegetable producers to inform future food safety engagement. The final three chapters are a collection of articles based on my experiences working with agricultural higher education in international development contexts. Chapters six and seven present two articles about the employability of Egyptian agriculture university graduates. Chapter eight includes my final research article and explores how a service learning-based study abroad in Romania encouraged agricultural engagement interest and skills in undergraduate agricultural students. Lastly, chapter nine concludes the dissertation with final remarks and reflections about how each discipline provided a different perspective to international development in agriculture, and the value of applying interdisciplinary approaches to complex challenges.