Alumni Profiles
Abigail Seiler (MA Anthropology of Food 2010) is living in Washington, DC and recently completed a Master's degree in Communication at the University of Maryland, where she focused on rhetoric, social change, and food movements. She is currently working for the Center for Food Safety, a non-profit public interest and environmental advocacy group that challenges harmful food production technologies and promotes sustainable alternatives through litigation and policy work.
Alessandro d'Ansembourg (completed BA Anthropology of Food course 2005) works as Senior Consultant at Zago in New York City. He mainly advises non profits, foundations, and international organizations on strategic planning, communication campaigns, and branding- and identity-related issues. He frequently collaborates with several grass roots food and agriculture movements and organisations like Slow Food USA and The Greenhorns. In September 2011 he will be working with a large US philanthropy on sustainable fisheries programs with a focus on Asia. Alessandro also sits on the Board of Advisors of the Associazione Monte Alto, a community-focused natural conservation association in Nigoline, Italy, and he serves on the Board of Directors of the Santa Maddalena Foundation, a retreat for writers and botanists near Florence, Italy.
Catherine McPherson (MA Anthropology of Food 2011) wrote her dissertation on the craft beer movement in London and has since moved to Washington DC. She is expan¬¬ding her knowledge of beer production and consumption, working at one of the east coast’s premiere beer bars under one of the nation’s best beer directors as well as working at a local brewery and writing for dcbeer.com. She is also exploring ways in which to get involved with urban agriculture and organizations working to improve food access in the city.
Chi-Hoon Kim (MA Anthropology of Food 2009) began her Ph.D. in Anthropology of Food at the Indiana University in the Autumn of 2010. She is continuing research on airline meals and currently working as a researcher for the Korea Broadcasting Station’s food documentary series. Her regional focus is South Korea and she is also interested in analyzing Korean government policies regarding tourism and agriculture.
Constanze von Hartmann (MA Anthropology of Food 2011) focused her interests on development-related issues during her MA degree by taking courses on: Famine and Food Security; Agrarian Change and Development; and the Anthropology of Development. Currently she is conducting research in rural Haiti on anthropological factors determining the success or failure of Agricultural Development and Food Security projects.
David Pistrang (MA Anthropology of Food 2010) lives in San Francisco and works on the editorial team at CHOW.com. His research and professional interests include food tourism, Chinese cuisine (especially dumplings), education, and cross-cultural experiential learning. He would be very happy to meet other graduates of the program if they come to San Francisco, and would make sure that they eat well.
Diya Sharma (MA Anthropology of Food 2009) worked for a time after completing her MA for Riverford Organic, a cooperative of farmers in Devon that produces fruit, vegetables, meat and dairy which is then packaged as standard and customized boxes. She now works with a non-profit collective called Ethical Tea Partnership, a membership-based organization of 24 large and medium tea packing companies set up to improve working standards in the tea industry through monitoring, evaluation and fair trade practices. Diya’s interests lie in fair and ethical trade, working on shortening food chains and working with small and marginal food producers.
Doreen Joy Barber (MA Anthropology of Food 2010) is living in London, and has recently worked for Slow Food UK in a communications & social media role. She is currently involved as a volunteer web strategist and social media advisor with East London Food Access, Ltd., and she is also involved with Slow Food London. Doreen has most recently started work with Great British Chefs, putting her interests in food and website work to good use. She also periodically updates two blogs, TastyFever.com and AbandonedinLondon.com, and works part-time in one of the best pubs for craft beer in North London.
Eleonoora Kirk (MA Anthropology of Food 2010) is working as a foreign rights literary agent for Holland & Scandinavia but continues her personal interest in food through editing her great-great-grandmother's best-selling cookery book for a modern audience alongside collaborating with designers and innovators on food-related projects. She recently gave a short talk on artisan food to branding and R&D managers from a variety of large F&B multinationals, independent designers and food industry entrepreneurs. She also tries to keep her food blog, eleonoorak.wordpress.com, going when time allows.
Elizabeth Bennett (MA Anthropology of Food 2011) is currently in Washington D.C. working for the National Governors Association. She is interested in issues related to childhood obesity and has been involved with the growing food justice movement in D.C. by serving on the Mayor's Sustainable Food Working Group and volunteering with D.C. Central Kitchen.
Eloise Dey (MA Anthropology of Food 2008) has worked in London gaining an understanding of food sustainability in urban contexts. She has worked from launch on Sustain’s Capital Growth project, which aims to convert 2012 spaces in London into food growing areas that benefit the community by the year 2012. Alongside this she worked with Tristram Stuart and the Feeding 5000 team to coordinate an event to raise awareness about the issues of food waste. Following on from the success of Feeding 5K, Eloise became one of the founding members of A Taste of Freedom and is currently working on an educational event to raise awareness and tackle the issues of surplus food.
Emma Piper (MA Anthropology of Food 2012) currently works part time as a Youth Engagement Project Manager with the educational and volunteer led charity READ International. They currently work in Tanzania and Uganda, distributing disused UK resources to schools in partnership with the Ministries of Education. Emma’s undergraduate dissertation looked at the empowering effect of permaculture on women in post-tsunami Banda Aceh, Indonesia. She is interested in food security, particularly in urban, and/or disaster prone settings.
Emma Sears (MA Anthropology of Food 2009) chose to pursue her interests in wine after the MA, working as a cellar hand in a small winery in Napa, California. She has continued learning how to make wine on farms in both California and South Africa, where she is currently working.
Emily Earhart (MA Anthropology of Food 2011) recently joined Vauxhall City Farm as an Educational Assistant. She is responsible for food growing education, helping out with educational workshops and events at the farm. She also works part time at Melograno, an Italian artisan food shop in Holland Park, and volunteers at Great Ormond Street Hospital, where she completed research for her dissertation on hospital food.
Federico de Musso (MA Anthropology of Food 2011) has followed upon research on freeganism and ‘food resistance’ for his degree, and his interests in film making, photography and sound to work on a documentary on Farmer Markets and Ethical Purchasing Groups in Northern Italy.
Giacomo Pelizza (MA Anthropology of Food 2011) is working to broaden his knowledge of beer and pubs in the UK, particularly the art of cellarmanship. He also volunteers with Kernel, one of London’s leading breweries.
Harrison Leaf (completed BA Anthropology of Food module 2007) has started up three companies since completing his first degree at SOAS in Social Anthropology and Development Economics, including access:wind (access-wind.com), and is now enrolled in a masters degree programme in Environmental Science at Yale University. His current work furthers interests he developed during his time at SOAS while undertaking a project to build a 250 square meter edible roof garden on the fourth floor of a creative agency in central London, including a bee-hive, vegetable and mushroom production, and event space and artist exhibitions.
Jessica Chu (MA Anthropology of Food 2010) is doing doctoral research in the Department of Anthropology and Sociology at SOAS under the supervision of Johan Pottier and Harry West. Jessica’s project explores rising interest in 'land grabs' and seeks to situate debates about this phenomenon within the anthropology of development, with a focus on implications for food security. In addition to 'land grabs' she has been researching other related issues including current trends in food security policy, agricultural development, and food prices.
Katherine Harrison (MA Anthropology of Food 2010) continued after completion of the MA to intern at the Food Chain, a nutrition charity that provides meals to people living with HIV in London. She has since left London and is now interning on a farm in Herts—a mixed farm that seeks to bring together food, animals and people and prides itself on diversity and high animal welfare standards.
Kathleen Greavette (MA Anthropology of Food 2010) returned to Canada where she completed a Post-Graduate Certificate in Food Security through Ryerson University in Toronto. She has since begun a position with the Economic and Human Development Department of the City of Cape Town, which supports urban agriculture within the city. This position emerged through a partnership between Rooftops Canada and the City of Cape Town where she was responsible for developing Community Garden Guidelines for projects in the City and assisting with an exchange event and summit that the city hosted in August 2011.
Lauren Blake (MA Anthropology of Food 2010) conducting doctoral research at the British Library and University of Sheffield, studying food activism through oral histories. Her areas of focus include food activists, activist organizations, activist activity, identity, food policy, food politics, recent history, social change, and qualitative social research. She is also continuing work emerging out of her MA dissertation on malnutrition and development in Guatemala.
Lucia Trlicova (MA Anthropology of Food 2009) is pursuing a PhD at the Institute of Social Anthropology at Comenius University. Her research explores the constitution and reproduction of Elite groups within Slovakia and how their power and status rise and fall over time in relation to broader social transformations, using food consumption as a medium through which distinction of elites is manifested. She teaches a course called “Anthropology of Food and Eating,” the first of its kind in Slovakia, and is an assistant lecturer for the “Introduction to Economic Anthropology” course.
Madlen Maehlis (MA Anthropology of Food 2011) is currently a Research Assistant at the GRASSI Museum of Ethnology, Leipzig, Germany. This work builds upon her B.A. in Asian and African Studies, her studies in the Associate International Asian Studies Programme at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and her focus in the MA on Muslim foods in China since the Qing dynasty, alternative modes of food production and political gardening movements and culinary activism.
Mariagiulia Mariani (MA Anthropology of Food 2011) spent years collaborating with Slow Food (slowfood.com), managing projects related to the food and taste education and the defense of
biodiversity, before completing her MA in Anthropology of Food. She loves everything related to food, from field to fork, including food activism. After spending time in Oakland collaborating with Food First (foodfirst.org), she returned to London to find and create other food related projects. With a group of friends and sustainable food supporters, she is setting up a permaculture farm and education centre in the Ecuadorian Andean region.
Olissa Francisco (MA Anthropology of Food 2010) returned to Northern California to work as an account executive for a small PR company called Holly Hansen Public Relations (www.hollyhansenpr.com) which markets and represents international niche food and wine companies and products. She also volunteers for food justice organizations in the Bay Area (Oakland, San Francisco, and Berkeley) and is interested in food justice/access, GMO's, alternative food networks, local food economies, and urban growing.
Paul Chalmers (MA Anthropology of Food 2010) is currently conducting doctoral research on Spaces of sustainable trade? Street food in Latin America at the School of City and Regional Planning, Cardiff University. His research group has the overarching theme of 'sustainable city-regions'—aiming to explore ways in which cities might develop new ways forward in food governance. His fieldwork will focus on La Paz, Bolivia. Within the University, he is also a member of the new Sustainable Places Research Institute. He spends free time working on farms and community gardens and also runs a group in Cardiff that engages in a minor way with underutilised abundance by cooperatively brewing wild and urban fruit.
Rachel Adams (MA Anthropology of Food 2011) is currently living in Seattle and working at PCC Natural Markets, a food cooperative that sources locally, helps preserve local farmland, and runs programs to educate kids about food and cooking. She also writes for various websites and print publications including Blue Tomato, Wine & Food Travel, and Fire & Knives. Rachel is interested in all aspects of food with particular emphasis on artisanal production processes and the role of food in identity and memory.
Rebecca Chesney (MA Anthropology of Food 2011) has worked in a variety of food related settings since completing her MA, including an Italian artisanal food shop, a winery and a coffee shop. She also enjoys photography, and one of her pieces was selected for the 2012 Pink Lady Food Photographer of the Year exhibit in London.
Seamus Murphy (completed the Anthropology of Food course as an elective in 2010) is pursuing a a PhD at SOAS, examining fisheries development in Malawi and, in particular, its impact on the food security of the lake-shore villages of Lake Chilwa.
Signe Johansen (MA Anthropology of Food 2009) is working as a freelance food writer and cookery instructor specializing in Scandinavian food. Her first cookbook, 'Secrets of Scandinavian Cooking' (Saltyard Books), was published in 2011, and her second cookbook, 'Secrets of Scandinavian Baking', in 2012.
Sushila Moles (MA Anthropology of Food 2010) works at River Cottage HQ in Devon where she is the Bespoke Events Manager. In this role, she coordinates events from weddings to cookery school days to small festivals where British local food skills are the key focus. In her spare time she has a landshare where she grows her own food, and keeps pigs and goats. She recently started a business selling billy goat meat (what would be a wasted by-product of the dairy industry) to restaurants in London (http://cabrito.squarespace.com/).
Zoe Goodman (completed BA Anthropology of Food module 2007) worked at a trade and human rights NGO (www.3dthree.org) in Geneva for two years, where her research focused on the effects of intellectual property rights (IPRs) on seeds, small farmers, rural livelihoods, and biodiversity. She was also involved in work on land grabbing. After completing her MA at SOAS with a dissertation on how East African Asians in the UK use food to construct their identities, she will begin study for a PhD in Anthropology at SOAS in the autumn of 2012.
