Elena Neri
PhD Research Fellow
Anthropology of Food and Nutrition, Faculty of Health and Sports Sciences
My food-focused interdisciplinary background includes social anthropology, economics, product development, nutrition and public health. Before embarking on the EATWELL project at the University of Agder, I completed my MA in the Anthropology of Food at SOAS (London) and then worked as a Research Assistant on the ‘Food, with Care’ project, supporting the development of a holistic food strategy for a children’s hospital in Cambridge. My PhD project - EATWELL - involves working as part of a radically interdisciplinary team of researchers, carrying out an ethnography of food systems and more-than-human health in Bhutan.
Research interests
There are many elements in the Anthropology of Food that interest me and that are part of my research. I'm committed to using food as a lens to understand more about the world we live in, including: how food systems operate to enforce and perpetrate social inequalities; how food is affecting humans, non-humans and the environment in the Anthropocene; the relationship between food and health (human and more-than-human). I'm also interested in food as a way to explore concepts such as identity, belonging, inclusion and exclusion.
Work experience
01.09.2023-dd: PhD research fellow in the Anthropology of Food and Nutrition, Department of Nutrition and Public Health, Faculty of Health and Sports Sciences, UiA
01.12.2022-31.08.2023: Senior Research Assistant on the 'Food, with Care' project, Centre for Research in Public Health and Community Care, School of Health and Social Work, University of Hertfordshire (UK)
(01.09.2021-01.09.2022: MA in Anthropology of Food at SOAS, UK)
01.09.2019-31.08.2021: Food product developer (plant-based sports supplements and health products)
Projects
EATWELL: a comparative-material semiotic ethnography of food systems and more than human health in Bhutan.
Selected publications
Blog posts:
Laine, E., & Neri, E. (2023, November 1). Thinking like a slime mold and sharing mushroom ice cream: Reflections from the CSSM PhD School. Centre for the Social Study of Microbes. Thinking like a slime mold and sharing mushroom ice cream: Reflections from the CSSM PhD School – The Centre for the Social Study of Microbes (socialmicrobes.org)
Neri, E. (2022, November 29). Hillingdon Food Bank: a surface fix to a broken food system. Hillingdon Food Stories. Hillingdon Food Bank: a surface fix | HillingdonFood (hillingdonfoodstories.org)
Scientific publications
- Neri, Elena (2024). Nublang, the precious treasure of Western Bhutan.
- Neri, Elena (2023). Presentation on the EATWELL project at the CSSM PhD school 2023.
- Neri, Elena (2023). Thinking like a slime mold and sharing mushroom ice cream: Reflections from the CSSM PhD School.
Research groups
Last changed: 15.11.2023 17:11