Sociology
PhD Researcher in Sociology (ESRC 1+3)
College of Social Sciences and International Studies, University of Exeter
Start date: October 2020
Research topic: Food knowledge in migratory bodies: an embodied approach to taste/smell memories through time and space.
My research focusses on embodied food practices and asks the fundamental question: where does food knowledge reside? I explore sensory perceptions (taste/smell in particular) and the role they play in locating experiences of food and eating within the body, while also going beyond the body to the mind in order to understand how sensory memories are implicated in the construction of selfhood and identity. Food is considered as a material substance through which cultural knowledge can be carried and reproduced. I will work with migrants to investigate how sensory taste/smell memories may enable food to provide a sense of continuity of bodily experience through spatial and temporal ruptures, and how shared embodied practices of food and eating might foster belonging.
Research supervisors: Professor Harry G West, Professor Giovanna Colombetti
Email: as1472@exeter.ac.uk