Project 1
My undergraduate thesis, entitled Indigenous Roots and Contemporary Branches of Diverse Agroforestry Systems in Northern Climates, supervised by Dr. Nick Jordan of the Department of Agronomy and Plant Genomics at the University of Minnesota
“My relationship with the land and its plants, wherever I have found myself, has been the greatest gift. They have guided me, kept me healthy, grounded, and above all, open to listening. I hope to keep listening. In this spirit, I would like to contextualize the following research and project within a deep love.
This semester has been spent buried in a realm of study that has stretched all the way back to my childhood. In the early weeks of this research, I spent hours sifting through my mother’s library and revisiting books whose covers I saw strewn across the dining room table, and whose sketches I remember as vividly then as I see them now.
This project has afforded me the opportunity to reconnect with so much knowledge and legacy within my own family, and from that meditation and a lot of reading and hard work, I am presenting this little offering as an act of devotion.”
Thesis
The final thesis is linked to the right. This work was completed in the last months of my undergraduate degree under the supervision and guidance of Dr. Nick Jordan from the University of Minnesota, Dr. Chelsea Geralda Armstrong of Simon Fraser University, and in partnership with my brother Marco Zappia and so many wonderful people at the FOOD BUILDING in Northeast Minneapolis.