Wendy Wolford is the Robert A. and Ruth E. Polson Professor of Global Development in the Department of Global Development in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Cornell University. Since 2018, Wolford has served as the university’s vice provost for international affairs.

Wolford is an expert on land distribution, use, and governance around the world. She has worked for many years in Brazil and, more recently, in Ecuador and Mozambique, collaborating with local researchers, community members, policymakers, and multilateral organizations. Wolford has published several books, including This Land is Ours Now, about the Brazilian social movement, the Rural Landless Workers (Duke University Press, 2010), and a co-edited volume, The Social Lives of Land (Cornell University Press, 2024). Her most recent book, The Elusive Plantation, is out now (University of California Press, 2025). Wolford was a fellow in the Yale Agrarian Studies Program in 2004–05 and a Fulbright Research Scholar in 2016–17 and has received support from the National Science Foundation, Mellon, Ford, the Social Science Research Council, and more.

As vice provost for international affairs, Wolford supports the university’s international community and focuses on strengthening the university’s many global connections and interdisciplinary initiatives. Under her leadership, the university has created Global Hubs partnerships, Global Grand Challenges, and increased support for Scholars Under Threat.