The ASFS consists of more than 300 scholars researching, writing, teaching, and advocating on food topics. Our members’ backgrounds span academic disciplines, whose interests range from agriculture to food preparation to consumption (and beyond to food waste) and from issues that intersect with politics and gender, to class and performance. The Member Spotlight introduces us to such a diverse group of scholars, activists, farmers, and artists. Interviews are conducted by Alanna K. Higgins. Interviews prior to 2019 were conducted by Dr. Greg de St. Maurice and Dr. Beth M. Forrest.
INTERVIEWS
In this Member Spotlight, Dr. Farha Ternikar, Professor of Sociology, and Program Director of the Gender, Women and Sexuality Studies at LeMoyne College (Syracuse, NY) speaks with Alanna Higgins about intersectionality, having a residency at Chatham, and biryani. Dr. Ternikar researches Muslim women and consumption, is a PI for the ASFS Mellon grant, and is an expert on brunch.
In this Member Spotlight, Alanna Higgins interviews Mallory Cerkleski, a Ph.D. student at Scuola Normale Superiore (Pisa, Italy). They talk about using food as a tool to build relationships, comparative histories of communist food systems, writing book reviews, and more.
Given that it was just pie day (3.14), Alanna Higgins interviews Claire Bunschoten, Abbott Lowell Cummings Posdoctoral Associate in American Material Culture at Boston University, where she teaches a material culture class centered on pie. She shares with us her experience as a post-doc, a bit about her research that centers on vanilla and American-ness, and what has informed her as a public historian and teacher. And, she answers the question: chocolate or vanilla.
2024 kicks off with an interview with Liz Williams, founder of the National Food & Beverage Foundation, the umbrella corporation that opened and oversees the Southern Food & Beverage Museum (SoFAB), a research center, the Nitty Grits Podcast Network, and the National Culinary Heritage Register. As an educator, author, and culinary diplomat, find out what serves as one of her most memorable meals, in this interview with Alanna Higgins.
Steven Alvarez is an Associate Professor in English at St. John’s University. A published poet, award-winning teacher, and book author, Dr. Alvarez’s academic work focuses on bilingual education and literacy studies, focusing on Mexican immigrant communities. In this interview with Alanna Higgins, Dr. Alvarez discusses the connection between literature and food, ethnographic research and confienza, poetry, developing classes, and more!
Nader Mehravari is a retired corporate executive with a background in science, engineering, and technology who has taught at Cornell, Syracuse, and Princeton Universities. After his retirement, Dr. Mehravari followed a calling that had been whispering in his ear for over 40 years – to study the principles and practice of Persian cookery full time. He is a volunteer Research Associate at the College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences of University of California, Davis studying historical, cultural, and social practices relating to the preparation and consumption of food within the global Iranian diaspora community. In this interview with Alanna Higgins, Dr. Mehravari discusses what drew him to ASFS, using his previous training and experiences in his current work, his project about an innovative cookbook, and the Persian dish tahdig (including a recipe!).
In this interview, Alanna Higgins talks with Ana Tominc—newly elected President of ASFS—about European perspectives for our organization, her research on ideological workings in everyday life and food, the founding of the Biennial Conference on Food and Communication, editing a volume for Routledge, and why her dad really, really dislikes Jamie Oliver. Read her interview here.
Sharon Hudgins is a former university professor and an award-winning author of five non-fiction books, including two cookbooks. More than 1,000 of her articles on food, travel, and culture have been published in newspapers and magazines around the world. She has also edited a food magazine and several cookbooks; contributed entries to Oxford culinary encyclopedias; and presented ten papers at the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery, where she received a Sophie Coe Award for her research about the foodways of Buriat-Mongolians. Her books include Food on the Move: Dining on the Legendary Railway Journeys of the World (editor and contributing writer, 2019); T-Bone Whacks and Caviar Snacks: Cooking with Two Texans in Siberia and the Russian Far East (2018); The Other Side of Russia: A Slice of Life in Siberia and the Russian Far East (2003); and Spain: The Cuisines, The Land, The People (in German, 1991). Read her interview here.
Salma Serry is an Egyptian researcher and award-winning filmmaker with an MA from the American University in Cairo. She is currently pursuing a degree in food studies from Boston University. Her work focuses on documenting the foodways of Egypt and the Arab Gulf’s history at the intersection of culture and identity. She was recently awarded a grant from the Arab Fund for Arts and Culture to produce a manuscript on culinary ephemera and cookbooks of Southwest Asia and North Africa. In this interview, Alanna Higgins talks to Salma about her SUFRA KITCHEN project, the 2021 Just Food Conference, pursuing a Master of Arts in Gastronomy, and her favorite food moments in film.
José López Ganem is a graduate student in the Boston University Gastronomy program. He served as the first Resident Fellow for the Fine Cacao and Chocolate Institute (FCCI). José’s work centers around questions of the definitions, boundaries, and the business of Mexican chocolate. In this interview with Alanna K. Higgins, José discusses grad school, his work at the FCCI, Mexican chocolate, his research trajectory, and favorite foods.
Sophie Kelmenson is a PhD candidate in City and Regional Planning at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her research examines food systems, equity, and environment. In this interview with Alanna Higgins, she talks about her work on alternative food systems, how Food Studies and City and Regional Planning are connected, and how she uses statistical, qualitative, and computational social science methods.
Dr. Sasha Gora received her PhD from Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich and the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society in 2020. Currently, she works as an environmental humanities research fellow at the Center for the Humanities and Social Change at Università Ca’ Foscari, Venice.A cultural historian and writer, her work focuses on the intersections of food, history, culture, and art. In this interview with Alanna K. Higgins, they discuss her research interests, advice for an international career, climate change, public scholarship, and her favorite knife. Photo by Nina Mik.
In the second installation of our roundtable interview series, Member Spotlight coordinator Alanna Higgins talks pedagogy with Sonia Massari, Jonathan Deutsch, and Kerri LaCharite. Jonathan, Sonia, and Kerri tell Alanna about their approaches to teaching, how their teaching has evolved, and share some of the pedagogical resources they’re excited that they’ve recently come across.
Jennifer Shutek is a PhD candidate in Food Studies at New York University Steinhardt. She studies the intersection of foodways with nation-building, migration, and urbanism, with a focus on Palestine and Israel. This interview by Alanna Higgins is from April 2021.
Laura Shapiro has written about culinary history and food related topics for Gastronomica, Gourmet, Newsweek, The New Yorker, The New York Times, and other publications. Her first book, Perfection Salad: Women and Cooking at the Turn of the Century has been reissued by the University of California Press. Her book about chef Julia Child won the 2008 Literary Food Writing prize from the International Association for Culinary Professionals. Alanna Higgins and Jess Canose use this interview to find out more about the writer behind the articles and books.
Dr. Cecilia Leong-Salobir shares details about her research and publishing, including advice for younger scholars, in this interview with Alana Higgins. Cecilia is an elected board member of ASFS and serves on the editorial board of Food, Culture, and Society and also that of Global Food History. She obtained her PhD from the University of Western Australia for her research on colonial food history and is currently a Research Fellow at both the University of Western Australia and the University of Wollongong.
Jessica Carbone is co-president of the Graduate Association of Food Studies, the student caucus of ASFS. She is completing her PhD in American Studies at Harvard University and serves as the managing editor of Gastronomica. Alanna Higgins conducted this interview about Jessica’s research and work.
In this interview, Alanna Higgins and Greg de St. Maurice ask ASFS board member Dr. Scott Alves Barton about his ethnographic and public history research on Afro-Brazilian cuisines and his approaches to teaching a variety of Food Studies courses. Scott is a graduate of NYU’s doctoral program in Food Studies and teaches at NYU, Queens College, and Montclair State University. He earned a place on Ebony magazine’s list of the best African American / Diaspora chefs.
Member Spotlight Coordinator Alanna Higgins recently spoke with Carlynn Crosby, a food writer and Nathalie Dupree Fellow at the Southern Foodways Alliance, who is finishing her Master’s degree in Southern Studies at the University of Mississipi. She has written a number of articles for the food section of the Tampa Bay Times and other publications. Carlynn serves on the board of GAFS. Find the interview and links to Carlynn’s public writing here.
In the first virtual roundtable interview for this page, Alanna Higgins discusses activism and advocacy with Willa Zhen, Darcy Mullen, and Vanessa Garcia Polanco. Darcy, Vanessa, and Willa share their experiences, insight, and practical advice about engaging in activism during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Vanessa Garcia Polanco, alumna of Michigan State University’s Department of Community Sustainability, is 2020 Michigan Junior Food System Leader of the Year and a 2019 James Beard Foundation Scholar.
Dr. Darcy Mullen is a Postdoctoral Marion L. Brittain Fellow in the School of Media, Literature, and Communication at Georgia Institute of Technology.
Dr. Willa Zhen is Professor of Liberal Arts at The Culinary Institute of America and author of “Food Studies: A Hands-On Guide.”
The latest interview by Alanna Higgins is with Tadgh Byrne. Tadgh studies in the Gastronomy and Food Studies Master’s program at the Dublin Institute of Technology. In this interview, he talks about his research, Food Studies in Ireland, and the the blog he founded (The Feed). He also reveals some of favorite spots for food and coffee in the Dublin area, and shares a recipe for his special BBQ lamb.
For our first Member Spotlight interview of 2020, Alanna Higgins talks to Dr. Kerri Lesh, who recently earned her Ph.D. in Basque Studies / Anthropology. She teaches Anthropology at the University of Nevada, Reno. Kerri is also a Certified Specialist of Wine (CSW). Her research interests include language, food & wine, culture, and value, and her dissertation examines the interplay between these in the Basque region. Find out more about Kerri’s favorite wine and an opportunity to go to the Basque region with Kerri here.
Our December 2019 interview is a conversation between Member Spotlight contributor Alanna Higgins and ASFS Social Media Coordinator and Newsletter Editor KC Hysmith. KC is a PhD candidate in American Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her research looks at how American women have used the medium of food to engage in resistance.
Halie Kampman is a PhD student at UC Santa Cruz in Environmental Studies. She has been awarded a Fulbright grant to conduct research in Senegal. She has also worked as a consultant for International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). Alanna Higgins interviewed Halie for the ASFS Member Spotlight in autumn 2019.
Charlotte Biltekoff is Associate Professor of American Studies and Food Science and Technology at the University of California, Davis. She is the author of Eating Right in America: The Cultural Politics of Food and Health (Duke University Press, 2013). Her research is concerned with the cultural politics of dietary health and the values and beliefs that shape American eating habits. Alanna Higgins interviewed Charlotte in the fall of 2019.
Shayan Lallani is a Ph.D. candidate in History at the University of Ottawa. His key research interests include food, tourism, and cultural globalization and dissertation research studies how mass-market American cruise lines produced cosmopolitan dining experiences for a growing middle-class passengers in the late twentieth century. This interview was conducted by Alanna Higgins in summer 2019.
Amy Trubek is Associate Professor of Nutrition and Food Sciences at the University of Vermont, where she serves as Director of the Food Systems Graduate Program. She has authored three books: Haute Cuisine: How the French Invented the Culinary Profession, The Taste of Place: A Cultural Journey into Terroir, and most recently, Making Modern Meals: How Americans Cook Today. Member Spotlight interviewer Alanna Higgins asked Amy about heirloom apples, the University of Vermont’s approach to food systems, and what has changed since her book on the “taste of place.” Read more here!
Raymond Anthony is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Alaska Anchorage whose research interests fall under the areas of environmental, food, animal and agricultural ethics, and ethical theory. Currently, he is pursuing research in global food security and climate ethics.
In this conversation with Adrienne Bitar, Raymond reflects on the relationship between philosophy and Food Studies, food ethics, and the unique role of Alaska in the bipartisan fight against climate change. As an Anchorage local, he also offers recommendations for what to see and do while in Anchorage this coming June for the conference.
Gillian Crowther is a British trained social anthropologist who came to British Columbia, Canada to learn from the Haida First Nation. She teaches at Capilano University, North Vancouver. Her research interests include the anthropology of food, material culture, indigenous knowledge systems, representation, new kinship studies, and the anthropology of the everyday. The second edition of her book Eating Culture: An Anthropological Guide to Food was published last year by the University of Toronto Press. In this interview, Gillian tells interviewer Jessica Canose about learning from “chat-n-chews” with the Haida First Nation, teaching with drawings, and those foods that speak of home to her.
Daniel Block is Professor of Geography at Chicago State University, where he studies food availability and access. He is coordinator of the Fredrick Blum Neighborhood Assistance Center (NAC), which provides technical and research assistance to grass-root, economic, and community developing organizations. His academic publications include articles on the gendering of milk 1880 – 1920, the foodways of the urban poor, and the book Chicago: A Food Biography. He has served on the boards of both ASFS and AFHVS and was re-elected to the ASFS board in 2019. Alanna K. Higgins spoke with Danny about his recent work on food deserts, asked him about his advice for doing community-based research, and found out where his pizza allegiances fall…
Heather Arndt Anderson is an award-winning food writer, culinary historian, and plant ecologist based in Portland, Oregon. Her work has been quoted in the New York Times, the Washington Post, and The Atlantic, and she’s appeared on the podcasts The Splendid Table and The Four Top. Heather is the author of four single-subject books of culinary history, including Berries: A Global History and Portland: A Food Biography. She spoke with Jessica Canose in May 2019. In this interview she talks bout how she became a successful food writer, the future of breakfast, and reveals a special secret about her books…
Erica Zurawski is a second year doctoral student in Sociology at the University of California Santa Cruz. She is a Graduate Fellow in UCSC’s Science & Justice Research Center. She also holds a Juris Doctorate from the Law School of the University of Wisconsin. In this April 2019 interview with Alanna K. Higgins, she talks about her work and research on food justice in Denver, her website, and a source of inspiration she shares with Donna Haraway.
Dr. Catarina Passidomo is jointly appointed in Anthropology and Southern Studies at the University of Mississippi, where she studies food systems to better understand and contest broader social systems and phenomena. Through work with her students and the Southern Foodways Alliance, she is investigating the connections between the food system and: migration between the Global South and the U.S. South; structural racism; economic inequality; and demographic and culinary changes in the American South. Caterina is in Lima, Peru conducting research on gastrodiplomacy on a Fulbright Teaching and Research Fellowship.
Alanna K. Higgins conducted this interview in spring 2019.
Dr. Marion Nestle is Paulette Goddard Professor of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health Emerita at New York University, where she served as chair for fifteen years. Her books include Food Politics (originally published in 2002), Soda Politics (2015), and Unsavory Truth: How Food Companies Skew the Science of What We Eat (2018). She is a former ASFS board member and currently engages in speaking arrangements and writing on her blog foodpolitics.com. Alanna K. Higgins conducted this interview in March 2019.
Dr. Christy Shields is Assistant Professor in the Department of Global Communications at the American University of Paris. Christy is an anthropologist specializing in the taste of place, labor and terroir, and food and identity. She was awarded the 2018 ASFS Award for Pedagogy for the graduate course “Food, Culture and Communication,” which includes a 5 day field visit to the Jura mountains.
In this interview from July 2018, Christy shares details about her course, her research, and Food Studies in France.
Dr. Janet Gilmore is Professor of Landscape Architecture & Folklore Studies at the University of Wisconsin Madison. She serves as faculty for the Center for the Study of Upper Midwestern Cultures, the Department of Planning & Landscape Architecture, the Folklore Program, and is affiliated with the Material Culture Certificate Program and the Buildings Landscapes Cultures Companion Program with UW-Milwaukee.
In this June 2018 interview, Janet shares information about her research projects, approaches to teaching, as well as an extensive list of suggestions for how to make the most of Madison’s landscape and foodscape at our upcoming annual conference. Thank you, Janet!
Beth Kamunge is a black-feminist food scholar in the Geography doctoral program at the University of Sheffield. She is co-editor of the forthcoming book The Fire Now: Anti-Racist Scholarship in Times of Explicit Racial Violence. Her awards include Gender, Place, and Culture’s new and emerging scholars award for 2017, the Royal Geographical Society’s Geography of Justice award (2016) as well as prizes for teaching and mentorship from the University of Sheffield.
In our March 2018 interview, she tells us about her career trajectory from Advocacy Program Officer working with indigenous East-African communities to black-feminist food geographer “reclaiming her time.”
Dr. Alice Julier is author of the award-winning Eating Together: Food, Friendship, and Inequality (University of Illinois, 2013). A sociolologist, she serves as Associate Dean and the Director of the Food Studies Program at Chatham University’s Falk School of Sustainability. Currently an an ASFS Fellow, she has served on the board since 1999, including several terms as President and Vice President.
Here (January 2018) we ask her about her work as well as her thoughts on the incidents of sexual harassment and gender-based discrimination in the food industry that have been in the media spotlight recently.
Dr. Cruz Miguel Ortíz Cuadra is a professor of humanities at the University of Puerto Rico, Humacao. The author of Eating Puerto Rico: A History of Food, Culture, and Identity, Dr. Ortíz Cuadra studies shifting food habits and cultural attitudes towards food since Spanish conquest. He holds a Ph.D. in History from the University of Puerto Rico.
Read More! (October 2017)
Jason Jay is a Master’s student in Food Studies at the University of the Pacific. Jason lost his sight in 2014 while working as a professional cook. Since then, his research has focused on food accessibility issues for the vision impaired. Jason tells us about his research, cooking, and also about competing as a para-visually impaired archer.
Read more! (September 2017)
Dr. Jennifer Jensen Wallach is Associate Professor of History at the University of North Texas. In addition to winning the 2017 ASFS Edited Volume Book Award for her book Dethroning the Deceitful Pork Chop: Rethinking African American Foodways from Slavery to Obama (Fayetteville, AR: University of Arkansas Press, 2015), she has also authored How America Eats: A Social History of U.S. Food and Culture (Rowman & Littlefield, 2013) and the forthcoming Tomorrow I’ll be at the Table: African American Foodways from Slavery to the Present. She edited American Appetites: A Documentary Reader (U. Arkansas, 2014) and coedited The Routledge History of American Foodways (Routledge, 2016.)
Read More! (July 2017)
Dr. John Lang is Professor of Sociology and Director of the Center for Teaching Excellence at Occidental College. The range of his work considers influences that impact public perceptions on food and eating, from noise levels in restaurants to consumer trust of food producers. His work appears in a number of publications, AgroBioForum to International Journal of Public Opinion Research to Gastronomica, and he has contributed to the books Savoring Gotham (2015), Food Issues (2015), and the forthcoming Organic Food: Farming and Culture (2017). Moreover, he is Book Review Editor of FC&S and host/organizer of the 2017 ASFS annual conference.
Read More! (May 2017)
Dr. Jeff Birkenstein is Professor of English at St. Martin’s University. He is the co-editor of Critical Insights: American Writers in Exile (2015), The Cinema of Terry Gilliam: It’s a Mad World (2013), and Reframing 9/11: Film, Popular Culture, and the “War on Terror” (2010). His work has been published in Perspectives on Global Development and Technology, Lore: An E- Journal for Teachers of Writing, and a number of edited volumes. He is currently working on a book project about what he has termed “Significant Food.”
Read More (April 2017)
Dr. Melissa Caldwell is an anthropologist at UC Santa Cruz. In 2013, she assumed the role as editor of Gastronomica. She is author of Not by Bread Alone: Social Support in the New Russia (2004), Food and Everyday Life in Postsocialist World (2009, with Elizabeth Dunn) Dacha Idylls: Living Organically in Russia’s Countryside (2010) and, most recently, Living Faithfully in an Unjust World: Compassionate Care in Russia (2016). In addition, she is editor of The Cultural Politics of Food and Eating: A Reader (2004) and Ethical Eating in the Postsocialist and Socialist World (2014).
Read More (March 2017)
Dr. Maria Grazia Quieti is Director of the MA in Food Studies Program and Dean of the Graduate School at The American University Rome. Prior to this she had a long career working on issues related to agricultural production, rural development for the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) of the United Nations. She holds a Ph.D. in Social Sciences (Cardiff), a Master’s in Public Administration (Harvard), and a laurea di dottore in cultural anthropology (Rome, Sapienza).
Read More (February 2017)
Bradley M. Jones is a PhD student in Cultural Anthropology at Washington University in St. Louis. He is the founding editor of the Graduate Journal of Food Studies and, currently, president of the Graduate Association of Food Studies (GAFS). Learn more about Brad, his research and his work with the GAFS!
Read More (January 2017)
Joke Mammen is Curator of Special Collections at the University of Amsterdam, notable for its History of Food Collection, its Gastronomic Library, and the Johannes van Dam and Joop Witteveen prizes. She is also an organizing committee member and registrar for the Amsterdam Symposium on the History of Food.
Read More! (December 2016)
Dr. Angela Jill Cooley is author of To Live and Dine in Dixie: The Evolution of Food Culture in the Jim Crow South (2015), which was awarded this year’s ASFS book award. She is Assistant Professor of History at Minnesota State University, Mankato. Prior to this she held a fellowship from the University of Mississippi’s Center for the Study of Southern Culture. Her research and teaching connect history, law, food, and social justice.
Read More! (October, 2016)
Dr. Gyorgy Scrinis is Lecturer at the Faculty of Veterinary and Agricultural Sciences at the University of Melbourne, Australia who specializes in food politics and policy. He holds a PhD in the History and Philosophy of Science, and Social Theory, from the University of Melbourne. He is author of the influential book, Nutritionism: The Science and Politics of Dietary Advice (2013) as well as several recent articles that have appeared in: The Journal of Peasant Studies, Canadian Food Studies, World Nutrition, and The Philosophy of Food, ed. David Kaplan. He has also contributed to several popular publications including Gastronomica, Salon, and The Huffington Post.
Read More! (August, 2016)
Dr. Jeffrey Pilcher is Professor of Food History in the Department of Historical and Cultural Studies at the University of Toronto, Scarborough. He authored ¡Que vivan los tamales! Food and the Making of Mexican Identity (1998), The Sausage Rebellion: Public Health, Private Enterprise, and Meat in Mexico City (2006), Food in World History (2006) and Planet Taco: A Global History of Mexican Food (2012). He edited the Oxford Handbook of Food History (2012) and the four-volume anthology Food History: Critical and Primary Sources (2014). He is current and founding editor of Global Food History and is writing a book on the global history of beer.
Read More! (June, 2016)
Dr. Elise Lake teaches sociology at “Ole Miss,” The University of Mississippi. There, she teaches classes on the family, food, criminality, and deviant behavior. She has published on the sociology of food and eating as well as the role of gender in the novels of American writer Harry Crews (1935-2012). Lake’s current research projects include considering how diet and body image are portrayed in Good Housekeeping magazine during the Progressive Era and the relationship between politics and school lunches.
Read More! (May, 2016)
Dr. Lisa Heldke is an ASFS Fellow who served on the board for 7 (?) years and co-editedFood, Culture, and Society for 4 years. She teaches philosophy at Gustavus Adolphus College, where she holds the Sponberg Chair in Ethics. She has authored/edited several books, including: Cooking, Eating, Thinking: Transformative Philosophies of Food (2003), Exotic Appetites: Ruminations of a Food Adventurer (2003) The Atkins Diet and Philosophy: Chewing the Fat with Kant and Nietzsche (2005), and most recently, Philosophers at Table: On Food and Being Human (2016). She also co-teaches the John Dewey Kitchen Institute at UVM (https://learn.uvm.edu/foodsystemsblog/2016/02/19/dr-lisa-heldke-on- food-studies- our-interrelations- in-the- world/).
Read More! (April, 2016)
Dr. Shingo Hamada is Lecturer in the Food Studies Program at Osaka Shoin Women’s University in Osaka Japan. He earned his Ph.D. in anthropology at Indiana University. From 2012-2013, he was a doctoral fellow for the yearlong Mellon Sawyer Seminar, “Food Choice, Freedom, and Politics,” at Indiana University and defended his dissertation in 2014. The title of his dissertation is “Fishers, Scientists, and Techno-Herring: An Actor-Network Theory Analysis of Seafood and Marine Stock Enhancement in Hokkaido, Japan.”
Shingo then moved to Kyoto, Japan to work as a project researcher at the Research Institute for Humanity and Nature (RIHN). He is working on the 3-year project “Long-term Sustainability through Place-based, Small-scale Economies: Approaches from Historical Ecology.”
Read more! (March, 2016)
Dr. Rachelle (Riki) Saltzman is Executive of the Oregon Folklore Network, which is comprised of community, regional and state cultural and heritage partners. Through folklife fieldwork and activities, the organization seeks to preserve cultural traditions while increasing public awareness. She is author of A Lark for the Sake of their Country: The 1926 General Strike volunteers in folklore and memory (Manchester UP, 2012), winner of the 2012 Wayland Hand Prize from the American Folklore Society. Riki has also coordinated the student paper awards, a task that illustrates her diligence, attention to detail, and patience.
Read more! (February, 2016)
Katherine Magruder is in her third year of her doctorate at NYU, working with Krishnendu Ray. She is busy studying for her comps and working on a dissertation proposal about food programming on radio, prior to its eclipse by cooking programs on daytime television in the 1950s and 1960s. In addition she works with Amy Bentley as the assistant managing editor for Food, Culture and Society, and is the membership manager for ASFS. Katherine earned her BA at Johns Hopkins, where she studied oboe at the Peabody Institute and studied under Sidney Mintz, blending her interests by considering Americans’ attitudes toward “Italian” food and music in the nineteenth century.
Read more! (January, 2016)