Tamil Nadu
In this article, I draw on Foucauldian concepts of knowledge, discourse, and power to explore comparisons Tamils in Madurai provided for valuing country chicken over broiler chicken, and the extent to which these comparisons level critiques against globalization.
Outreach
I am often asked to speak on topics related to my research for wide general audiences. In 2019, one of my former students interviewed me with his co-host for their podcast, Searching for the Center.
Courses
Food and Culture offers students a way to explore in-depth an area of anthropology that is growing in popularity but has been a part of the field since its inception.
Food Studies
In this review article, I discuss the third volume in a comprehensive three-volume set about methods in interdisciplinary Food Studies research, considering how the book could be used effectively as a reference and guide for students.
Tamil Nadu
Susan Seizer and I co-authored a paper using our two specialty foci to discuss the socio-linguistic significance of the inclusive "we" and "our" in Tamil culture.
Gender
I shared research on young women college students in Tamil Nadu and their views on global and local food systems at the Transecting Healthy and Sustainable Food in the Asia-Pacific Workshop, at Yale-National University of Singapore, in August 2018.
Outreach
My colleague Leigh Bush and I collaborated with current and former Earth Eats hosts and production staff to conduct interviews with Food Studies scholars and other food experts as guest segments. This NPR show is based at WFIU in Bloomington, IN.
Presentations
Multiple Ideologies in Local and Traditional Food Advocacy in Tamil Nadu, India
Tamil Nadu
Drawing on ethnographic evidence collected through field research in and around the city of Madurai, Tamil Nadu, this paper explores how the particularities of Tamil history and cultural values shape the current confused status of millets there.
Anthropology
I received funding and support from the Fulbright program for the second part of my dissertation research in India, in the 2015-2016 round of fellowship competitions.
Presentations
> Notes on Snack Culture in South India Reference Chera, Madeline. 2015. “Between Meals and Meanings: Notes on Snack Culture in South India.” Paper presented in "Place, Consumption, and Health," at the Association for the Study of Food and Society and Agriculture, Food, and Human Values Society joint
Food Studies
This encyclopedia entry provides an overview of contentious issues related to intellectual property rights (IPRs).