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Faculty Member

Matt Comi

Biography

Matt's work is motivated by a goal to support more sustainable, healthy, and equitable food producing systems on a warming planet. His research and teaching draws on literatures in environmental, cultural and rural sociology while emphasizing issues long relevant to science and technology studies. Current and recent projects have examined diverse areas of inquiry including the environmental and societal impacts of precision agriculture, knowledge making among hop growers and breeders, public internet accessibility, and the contemporary digital agriculture marketplace with respect to traceability. His work has been funded through the National Science Foundation, The Frank and Betty Koller Trusts, and the Great Plains Center for Agricultural Health.

Education

PhD, University of Kansas, 2022

Major: Sociology

Teaching

SOC 4100

Contemporary Social Theory, Spring 2026

SOC 3520

Environmental Sociology, Spring 2026

SOC 1010G

Intro to Sociology, Spring 2026

SOC 1010G

Intro to Sociology, Spring 2026

Scholarly/Creative Works

Comi, Matt , (2026) "Everyday Agri-Environmental Governance_ The Emergence of Sustainability Through Assemblage Thinking" . Sociologia Ruralis. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/soru.70014
Comi, Matt , Wolf, Steven , Oui, Jeanne , "Digital Traceability in Agriculture_ Decoupling Data from Products" . Science Technology and Human Values.
Comi, Matt , Carney, Megan , Becot, Florence , "Who Farms the Family Farm? Politics of expertise and erasure in the Yakima Valley " .
Comi, Matt , (2024) "Making Citra_ Branding, Breeding, and the Co-production of New Aroma Hops in the Yakima Valley" (Issue: 5, vol. 49). Science, Technology, & Human Values. https://doi.org/10.1177/01622439241238026
Stock, Paul , Comi, Matt , (2024) "Technological Utopianism, Tinkering, and Agricultural Technology_ Food Utopias, Care, and Farmers in the Future" . Cham: Palgrave McMillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-53491-1_22
Comi, Matt , Smith, Sarah , Goettlich, Walter A, Alexander, Perry , Davidson, Drew , Staples, William G, (2024) "Digital home-lessness: Exploring the links between public Internet access, technological capital, and social inequality" (Issue: 1, vol. 72). Current Sociology. https://doi.org/10.1177/00113921221111819

Awards

Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA)

Higher Education Academy - May, 2025

Spot Award