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.
Environment
In the course, we discussed the principal theories and methods environmental anthropology utilizes and the issues on which it focuses, by looking at case studies from South Asia and the Midwestern US.
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.
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
> Exploring the Relationship Between Tamil Folk Dietetics and Nutrition Science Reference Chera, Madeline. 2015. "Granny's Legitimacy: Exploring the Relationship Between Tamil Folk Dietetics & Nutrition Science." Paper presented in "Nutritional Practices & Cultural Models of Health," Society for the Anthropology of Food &
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
Intellectual Property Rights
This encyclopedic resource concisely explains the charge of biopiracy, critiques of extractive practices, and international law and policy related to the term. It also provides suggestions for further reading.
Tamil Nadu
This paper presents Hindu philosophy as the foundation for an environmentalist ethics conducive to local food systems and the host of social, personal, and environmental benefits that local food advocates associate with those systems.
Presentations
> Health in Heritage or Food to Leave in the Past? Reference Chera, Madeline. 2014. “Millet Madness: Health in Heritage or Food to Leave in the Past?” Paper presented in “Less Palatable, Still Valuable: Taste, Agrobiodiversity, and Culinary Heritage,” Executive Session, at the American Anthropological Association 113th Annual Meeting, Washington,