Elaine Power

Undergraduate Courses

HLTH 235 – Food Systems
HLTH 334 – Health, Illness & Society
HLTH 430 – Critical Weight Studies

Research Summary

I have spent my career researching food insecurity and other issues related to poverty, class, food, and health. As a result, I am a critic of food charity and an advocate for a guaranteed livable basic income, an income floor that would provide all Canadians with adequate income to meet their basic needs, including food. My current research explores arts-based knowledge mobilization for effective solutions to food insecurity. 

Graduate Student Opportunities

I am not accepting new graduate students at this time.

Sample Publications

• Power, E. (2025). Consuming Food. In M. Hird (Ed.), Consuming the Environment (pp. 79-91). New York: Routledge.
• Smith-Carrier, T., & Power, E. (2025). Structural Violence and the Social Determinants of Mental Health: Exploring the Experiences of Participants on the Ontario Basic Income Pilot in Ontario, Canada. Health & Social Care in the Community, 2025(1). https://doi.org/10.1155/hsc/7816069
• Taher, A., Power, E., & Payne, G. (2025). ‘You’re just invisible and you don’t matter at all’: The structural violence of the COVID-19 Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB). Journal of Critical Public Health, 2(1). 
• Lowitt, K., Levkoe, C., Dale, B., Dring, C., Gbejewoh, O., Glaros, A., . . . Power, E. (2024). Advancing basic income as a policy tool for food systems sustainability. Agriculture and Human Values. doi.org/10.1007/s10460-024-10654-4
• Taylor, P. & Power, E. (2023). Dismantling the structures and sites that create unequal access to food:  Paul Taylor and Elaine Power in conversation about food justice. Canadian Food Studies / La Revue Canadienne Des études Sur l’alimentation, 10(1), 41–54. https://doi.org/10.15353/cfs-rcea.v10i1.567
• Power, E. & McBay, A. (2022). Basic income is necessary but insufficient for just food futures. Canadian Food Studies / La Revue Canadienne Des études Sur l’alimentation, 9(2), 31–37. 
• Power, E., Dietrich, J., *Walter, Z., & Belyea, S. (2021). “I don’t want to say I’m broke”: Student experiences of food insecurity at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario. Canadian Food Studies / La Revue Canadienne Des études Sur l’alimentation, 8(1).

Books

• Swift, J., & Power, E. (2021). The Case for Basic Income: Freedom, Security, Justice. Toronto, ON: Between the Lines Press.
• Parker, B., Brady, J., Power, E., & Belyea, S. (Eds.). (2019). Feminist Food Studies: Intersectional Perspectives. Toronto, ON: Women’s Press.
• King, S., Carey, R. S., MacQuarrie, I., Millious, V. N., & Power, E.  (Eds.). (2019). Messy Eating: Conversations on Animals as Food. New York: Fordham University Press.
• Polzer, J., & Power, E. (Eds.). (2016). Neoliberal Governance and Health: Duties, Risks and Vulnerabilities. Montreal, PQ: McGill-Queen's University Press.
• Beagan, B. L., Chapman, G. E., Johnson, J., McPhail, D., Power, E., & Vallianatos, H. (2015). Acquired Tastes: Why Families Eat the Way They Do. Vancouver, BC: UBC Press.

Links
Hungry Stories