Faculty Member, American Culture
Lecturer
Literature, Science, and the Arts
Thesis Title: Aspirational Eating: Class Anxiety and the Rise of Food in Popular Culture, 1980-2010
|
Paul Anderson
|
About
I study, teach, and write about food, popular culture, and social class in the U.S. I'm particularly interested in how ideologies about good taste, nutrition, and the body reflect and reinforce social hierarchies. I'm currently revising my dissertation for publication and teaching three courses at the University of Michigan:
American Culture 231: Introduction to Visual and Material Culture Studies
University Courses 254: Introduction to Food Studies
University Courses 270: How to Talk to Anyone About Your Liberal Arts Education.
My dissertation is about aspirational eating, or the use of food and eating to perform and embody “the good life” and distinguish social classes in the U.S. Using an interdisciplinary approach that combines historical analysis, close readings of mass media texts, and new media ethnography, I analyze four pillars in the movement that has been hailed as the American “food revolution”: 1) gourmet food and the ideal of sophistication, 2) weight-loss dieting and the ideal of thinness, 3) natural food and the ideal of purity, and 4) ethnic food and the ideal of authenticity.
Some of the primary texts I analyze are the films Sideways (Fox Searchlight 2004) and Ratatouille (Pixar 2007), the weight-loss reality show "The Biggest Loser" (NBC), and the best-selling book _The Omnivore's Dilemma_ (Pollan 2006). I also analyze comments on recipe websites, message boards, IMDb.com, and blogs and online communities like Chowhound to explore how audiences are making sense of, negotiating with, and sometimes resisting dominant ideologies about food and eating.
Contact Information
| Homepage: |
