Online
Summer: May 19 - June 13, 2025, 4 weeks
Credit: 2 graduate 
Instructor: Shannon Arnold

Course Description

The goal of the course is to explore the cultures, life experiences, worldviews, roles, and
contributions of women in agriculture in select agriculture occupational pathways including research,
extension, marketing, education, production, and administration. Content will focus on investigating
the opportunities, demands, and conditions for success of local and global women in agriculture.
Students will study specific examples of women working in agricultural professions locally, nationally,
and internationally. Course content will provide students with a broad picture of agriculture,
including agricultural roles in society and employment possibilities.

Meeting Place and Times

Online

Instructor(s)

Dr. Shannon Arnold

I was raised in Texas where I attended Texas A&M University and received a Bachelor’s degree
in Animal Science. I worked on the university dairy farm for four years during my time in school
and competed on the IHSA horse show team. My passion to work with animals drove me to
pursue my degree with the intention to attend Vet School as a large animal veterinarian.
However, I changed my mind due to the fact that I loved to educate people about agriculture.
For the next 10 years, I worked in the agricultural industry as a Dairy Herdsman, a reporter for
USDA Ag Marketing News service, a regional supervisor and outreach educator for a cattle
genetics company, and finally taught high school agriculture.
These experiences instilled my desire to teach others in the agricultural industry and pursue my
PhD in Extension Education at University of Florida. This led me here to the position at MSU as
a Professor in Agricultural Education focused on working with students in Ag Communications,
Leadership, and Extension. I teach courses in all these areas and advise students interested in
non-formal agricultural education, or teaching “in the field.” I believe in the combination of
non-formal, formal, and informal education as a holistic learning system necessary for any
professional to advance their knowledge and skills, including agriculture.
Currently, my family derives all of its income from agriculturally based occupations with myself
as an agricultural educator and my husband owns his own horseshoeing business. Our children
are also heavily involved with 4-H in the swine, rabbit, and dog projects. Personally, I own
horses and compete in reining shows with my mare in the summer.
Agriculture influences our lives in so many ways and we are ALL connected to it. Women are
becoming an increasingly larger percentage of the industry as it advances and changes with
consumer needs. I believe it is important that we study the opportunities, demands, and
conditions of success for local and global women in agriculture and how we can learn from each
other. By increasing our awareness and understanding of how power, events, relations, history,
inter-cultural communications and interactions have impacted women’s agricultural roles, we
can ALL contribute to improvement of the agricultural industry as a whole.

Prerequisites

Graduate standing in LRES Graduate program or permission of instructor.

Tuition and Fees

See the Online Tuition, Fees and Financial Aid page.

If you are also taking a face-to-face course, please refer to the MSU Fee Schedules.

Required Books/Materials

All readings will be provided on D2L/Brightspace.
 
Recommended but NOT required references:
  • “Soil Sisters: A Toolkit for Women Farmers” by Lisa Kivirist
  •  "The Rise of Women Farmers and Sustainable Agriculture” by Carolyn Sachs, Mary
    Barbercheck, Kathryn Brasier, Nancy Kiernan, and Anna Terman
  • "Montana Women From The Ground Up: Passionate Voices in Agriculture and Land
    Conservation" by Kristine E Ellis

Computer Requirements:

  • Internet access
  • A device and browser that pass the system check for Brightspace LE, MSU's learning management system.

This course uses a learning management system. You will learn more closer to the course start date.

For More Information

Please contact Marni Rolston 406-994-2029

mrolston@montana.edu

How to Register

You must be accepted as a student to Montana State University to take this course.

Learn how to apply.

After your application has been accepted, you will register via MSU's online registration system, MyInfo.

Registration requires a PIN number. Learn how to find your PIN.

Once you have your PIN, learn how to register through MyInfo.