CAES anthropologist works to build sustainable food systems

What can you tell us about your journey to work in academia?

I grew up in Detroit. I did not grow up in an agricultural area, but I did have a family that always gardened, cooked and ate fresh and seasonal food. Generations of people on both sides of my family have had big gardens and care a lot about eating seasonally and making meals with fresh food. So there was this foundation, a love of the soil, a love of growing food, and a love of food systems, but I always treated it as a hobby. Now it's the focus of my academic work.

My undergraduate focus was anthropology, but I was also heavily involved in theater. Then my master's degree focused on folklore. I initially thought of it as a way to bring together my interests in theatre and culture, but what I got out of it was a way to understand culture as performative - meaning something we collectively produce through everyday practice. It was an interesting line of study. Still, it wasn't very concrete, so after that I served as an AmeriCorpsmember working with youth programs, including one that engaged teens in service through a community garden.

When I began to consider a Ph.D., I stumbled upon medical anthropology quite unexpectedly. It is a pivotal point in my story because the frameworks I acquired as a medical anthropologist, especially at the intersection of science and society, greatly influenced my thinking. I learned to navigate how scientific knowledge intertwines with traditional knowledge systems and societal influences, shaping how we understand and interact with the world. Much of my doctoral work revolved around unraveling these complexities.

A lot of anthropology work tends to be done solo, but my advisor had training in public health as well as anthropology. His research approach exposed me to collaborative, interdisciplinary projects, often based in the College of Medicine at the University of Arizona (UA). As I transitioned to the College of Agriculture at UA, I was equipped with similar lenses and frameworks, albeit applied to different topics.

The foundations I built in my Ph.D. journey prepared me to navigate interdisciplinary work and communicate effectively across diverse fields of study.