USC Dana and David Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences

Biographical Sketch

Daniel N. Warshawsky is a lecturer in the Spatial Sciences Institute at the University of Southern California where he teaches courses in geography and conducts his research on the urban geographies of food insecurity. 

While at USC, Daniel has completed research which critically analyzes the roles of non-profits and non-governmental organizations in urban food systems in North America and Southern Africa. In Chicago, Daniel analyzed the increasing role of metropolitan food banks as part of neoliberal urban governance regimes. Building on this work, Daniel’s research in South Africa has identified the size, scope, and spatial configuration of Johannesburg’s urban food system to determine the roles that transnational, national, and local institutions play in ensuring food security for the urban poor.

While local food initiatives are often embraced as a key means to achieve urban sustainability, improve health and nutrition, and empower communities, it is unclear whether these lofty aspirations can be fulfilled. On the one hand, local food organizations market social causes, access private sector resources, and operate vital services for the underserved. However, Warshawsky’s research suggests that an uneven distribution of resources, institutional instability, and lack of food social movements may weaken local food organizations ability to be effective service providers and vehicles of broader social change.

In honor of this research, the Association of American Geographers (AAG) presented Daniel with the award for the best dissertation in urban geography and named him a finalist for the J. Warren Nystrom Award for the best dissertation in the field of geography.

Education