Research

My research focuses on ethical issues relating to eating. While most food ethics concentrates on the impact of food production and consumption on human and non-human others, the environment, and health, my work highlights the importance of the activity of eating itself. I argue that the ways we practice and understand eating shape important parts of ourselves, including agency, capacities, and self-understandings. Eating also raises important issues for interpersonal relationships, intersecting with the ethics of hospitality and family ethics. My current projects aim to articulate the ethical implications of eating for clinical ethics, diet research, personal food choice, and eating with and feeding others.

I draw on a range of philosophical traditions, including phenomenology, bioethics, philosophy of science, and feminist philosophy, as well as interdisciplinary work on food and eating.

My work has appeared in various journals including The Hastings Center Report , Journal of Medical Ethics, Gastronomica, and Feminist Philosophy Quarterly. I’ve also contributed to the MSU Bioethics in the News Blog, Fit is a Feminist Issue and been interviewed by the American Philosophical Association blog and the APA Teaching Blog, as well as Discrimination and Disadvantage. For links to some of my publications, click here.

I defended my dissertation entitled Eating as a Self-Shaping Activity in April 2019. I won the 2020 Harold N. Glassman Distinguished Dissertation Award in the Humanities; you can read the citation here: Glassman Dissertation Award Citation.