Former CIH Postdoctoral Fellow Anna Bettini Awarded SSHRC Insight Development Grant

We are pleased to announce that Dr. Anna Bettini has been awarded a 2025 SSHRC Insight Development Grant for her project Farming the Sun: A Comparative Study of Agrivoltaics in Tuscany and Alberta's Rural Landscapes.

Dr. Bettini was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Calgary Institute for the Humanities from 2022 to 2024. During this fellowship, she studied energy transitions in Canada and New Zealand as part of the Deindustrialization and the Politics of Our Time SSHRC partnership project. Her research examined how energy transitions affect workers and communities.

Dr. Bettini’s new project builds on this foundation. It focuses on agrivoltaics—an innovative technology where solar panels are placed above farmland, allowing crops to grow underneath. The study will compare how rural communities in Tuscany, Italy, and Alberta, Canada respond to this technology. In Tuscany, agrivoltaics are viewed as a promising solution to land-use conflicts. In Alberta, renewable energy projects have faced restrictions due to concerns from local farmers. Through interviews, fieldwork, and visual documentation, Dr. Bettini will explore these contrasting perspectives by speaking with farmers, local governments, and energy companies.

This research tackles critical questions about rural energy transitions and aims to inform more equitable approaches to renewable energy development. By understanding how different communities navigate these challenges, the work will provide valuable insights for both local communities and policymakers seeking to balance agricultural traditions with clean energy goals. Dr. Bettini is currently a postdoctoral research associate in the History Department at the University of Calgary.