News

2011 Dissertation Retreat Workshops Innovative New Research in Food Studies

Graduate students and faculty met for the fourth annual dissertation retreat on September 10-11, 2011 at the Westerbeke Ranch in Sonoma. Nine graduate students shared chapters and proposals for the group to review and critique. The five faculty and two additional graduate student attendees provided helpful feedback that will help the authors to produce more refined pieces that speak across the disciplines in food studies. Nearly half of the attendees were new to the program, demonstrating the strength of food studies across the UC system.

Studies of Food & the Body MRP Moving to UC Santa Cruz

We are pleased to announce that administration for the UC Studies of Food & the Body Multicampus Research Program will be moving to UC Santa Cruz’s Institute for Humanities Research for the 2011-2012 academic year. Residing at UC Davis since its origination in 2008, the move will allow the program to flourish at another UC campus focused on agricultural production. For more details on the move, please see the article on the Davis Humanities Institute website.

Julie Guthman’s Weighing In to be released this fall

MRP member Julie Guthman’s second book, Weighing In: Obesity, Food Justice, and the Limits to Capitalism will soon be released by University of California Press. Weighing In challenges many widely held assumptions about the causes and consequences of the “obesity epidemic,” included whether “good food” will solve the social and health dilemmas of today. This provocative book is already garnering media attention, and Guthman was recently featured in The New York Times blog “Room for Debate.” Several chapters were workshopped by the MRP and Guthman insists the book is stronger because of the feedback she received.

New Publication from Graduate Student Member Megan Carney

Megan Carney, Ph.D. candidate in Anthropology at UC Santa Barbara and MRP member, will soon have an article published in the Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development. The article, titled “‘Food Security’ and ‘Food Sovereignty’: What Frameworks are Best Suited for Social Equity in Food Systems” was workshopped at the 2010 dissertation retreat

 

What is the Studies of Food & the Body Multi Campus Research Program?

The Studies of Food and the Body Multi Campus Research Program brings together faculty and graduate-student scholars in the humanities and social sciences from across the UC campuses who are exploring the relationship between food, the body, and culture. Peruse the website to find out more about participants, group activities, accomplishments, and membership.