Larry L. Burmeister earned the A.B in German from Friends University, the M.A. in Anthropology from Washington University, the M.S. in Agronomy from the University of California Davis, and the Ph.D. in Development Sociology from Cornell University.  He joined the faculty in the Department of Sociology at the University of Kentucky in 1985 and was promoted to Associate Professor in 1991.  He was appointed the Dr. and Mrs. C. Milton Coughenour Research Professor of Agricultural Sociology and Natural Resources in 2001.  He served as Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of Sociology from 2002 through 2006.

His current research interests include the emergence of multifunctionality agricultural policies in advanced industrial societies; agricultural restructuring processes and policy changes in East Asia and other advanced industrial societies in the post-WTO era; and the impact of the sustainable agriculture movement on U.S. farm policy.  His current teaching responsibilities include sociological theory, economic sociology, and the sociology of agri-food systems.

Dr. Burmeister was selected as a participant in the University of Kentucky Asia Center’s faculty study tour to China in 2004 and in the School for International Training’s faculty study tour to Mongolia in 2005.  He has accepted a visiting professorship invitation form the Department of Agricultural Economics and Natural Resources at the University of Tokyo where he will be teaching and doing research during the 2006-07 academic year.