To highlight student research being done across campus, the Graduate Specialization in Food Studies announces funding for grants to support primary research by graduate students in the interdisciplinary realm of food studies.
Food is central to connecting intimate aspects of human life. Food Studies, therefore, is of natural interest across a wide range of academic disciplines. In the social sciences and humanities, scholars are engaged in food and agricultural research examining such issues as access, affordability, and cultural significance and representation; in the natural and applied sciences, researchers explore food related health issues, as well as the biological and ecological dimensions of food systems. For decades, scholars working in the respective fields have highlighted important aspects of food’s key position in the human experience over time and across space. Too often though, these streams of inquiry have stayed relatively isolated from one another. However, in recent years there has been a growing recognition of the value of an integrated perspective on food matters. Indeed, acknowledging food’s unique centrality to life, there is a growing appreciation for the power of an interdisciplinary approach to food issues. Such an approach is more than the sum of its disciplinary parts and new insights into the ways in which food connects various elements of social life are emerging.
Scholars across disciplines are paying more attention to the ways food connects to important social, political, environmental, cultural and economic processes. However, there are few coordinated academic programs through which graduate students can explore these connections, undertake research that helps to clarify them and develop productive understandings of the dynamics they engender.
UO’s Food Studies Graduate Specialization offers a coherent structure through which UO graduate students can pursue these goals. By combining the specialization with a primary degree, students can enhance their education and marketability in a clear and transparent fashion. Students develop a richer intellectual foundation than possible or practical outside the specialization, and thereby acquire a special professional focus and qualification that helps them stand out in the job market.
Grants will be awarded to current graduate students enrolled in any UO master’s or doctoral program, for research contributing directly to the interdisciplinary study of food. We anticipate making several grants in the $300-500 range. Grants are normally used to cover expenses related to research costs (i.e., travel to archives, to conduct interviews, etc.), but we are aware that the coronavirus situation may be presenting students with new or unexpected needs and expenses. The Food Studies Program encourages everyone to read the call and to think expansively about ways in which funds could be used in support of research or professional development. The grants will be competitive and a committee will evaluate submissions based on merit, preparation and feasibility. Students pursuing the Food Studies specialization will receive priority points in the evaluation process. Grantees will present their work and preliminary findings in the 2021-22 “Food Talks” series, a colloquium sponsored by the Food Studies Program.
Application Deadline: Friday, June 4, 2021 by 5 pm.
To apply, please fill out the application cover sheet [link to PDF] and submit it with a proposal and CV. Full instructions can be found on the cover sheet. Applications must be submitted via email as PDFs to committee chair Dr. Daniel Buck (danielb@uoregon.edu). Awardees will be notified by the end of Spring term 2021.