Skip to main content
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • ’Cuse Conversations Podcast
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit
Health & Society
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • University Statements
  • Syracuse University Impact
  • |
  • The Peel
  • Athletics
Sections
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • University Statements
  • Syracuse University Impact
  • |
  • The Peel
  • Athletics
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • ’Cuse Conversations Podcast
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit
Health & Society

Williams-Forson to Speak on ‘Don’t Yuck My Yum’

Wednesday, November 13, 2013, By Renée K. Gadoua
Share
Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamicsspeakers
Psyche Williams-Forson

Psyche Williams-Forson

Food, culture and health are the themes that launch the 2013-14 Colloquium Series of the Department of African American Studies in The College of Arts and Sciences. The opening event will feature foodways scholar Psyche Williams-Forson, who will present “Don’t Yuck My Yum: African American Communities and the Quandary of ‘Eating Healthy’” on Tuesday, Nov. 19, 4 to 6:30 p.m. in the SU Bird Library, Graham Scholarly Commons (Room 114).

The event is free and open to the public; parking is available for $5 in SU’s Booth Garage. It is co-sponsored by SU’s Department of Women’s and Gender Studies and the Department of Public Health, Food Studies and Nutrition in the David B. Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics.

Williams-Forson is vice president of the Association for the Study of Food and Society and an associate professor in the Department of American Studies at the University of Maryland, College Park. She is also an affiliate faculty member in Women’s Studies and African American Studies and the Consortium on Race, Gender and Ethnicity.

Her prize-winning book, “Building Houses Out of Chicken Legs: Black Women, Food, and Power” (University of North Carolina Press, 2006), reflects her interest in exploring food in cultural studies, material culture and women’s studies.  The American Folklore Society, which honored it with a 2006 prize, praised it as a “superior work on women’s traditional, vernacular, or local culture and/or feminist theory and folklore.”

Williams-Forson is also co-editor, with Carole Counihan, of “Taking Food Public: Redefining Foodways in a Changing World” (Routledge: 2011). She has also written numerous articles and book chapters on related issues of food, class and gender. She is also the curator of “Still Cookin’ by the Fireside,” an online text and photo exhibition on the history of African American cookery for the Smithsonian Institution’s Anacostia Museum.

In an April 13, 2013, Huffington Post piece, Williams-Forson addresses the cultural history behind food. “Why can’t we just eat our Chinese food or soul food in blissful ignorance, caring not about their origins or the historical characters that helped to inspire the foods on our plates?” she asks.

Her answer mirrors a premise of her research: “Because, food is not solely a source of satiation and comfort,” she writes. “Food is a dynamic, tangible result of moments and movements of people throughout history that are and have been filled with tensions and contradictions. … Erasing the pasts of other cultures is willful ignorance and we should not be comfortable in this.” Instead, Williams-Forson encourages us to learn about the history of the food we eat. If we do, “we will find that we are ingesting new and intriguing life histories, experiences, and cuisines right in our own take-out boxes,” she writes.

 

  • Author

Renée K. Gadoua

  • Recent
  • Forecasting the Future With Fossils
    Sunday, June 8, 2025, By Caroline K. Reff
  • DPS Earns Accreditation From International Association of Campus Law Enforcement Administrators
    Friday, June 6, 2025, By Kiana Racha
  • Rock Record Illuminates Oxygen History
    Thursday, June 5, 2025, By Dan Bernardi
  • What Can Ancient Climate Tell Us About Modern Droughts?
    Thursday, June 5, 2025, By News Staff
  • Blackstone LaunchPad Founders Circle Welcomes New Members
    Thursday, June 5, 2025, By Cristina Hatem

More In Health & Society

Timur Hammond’s ‘Placing Islam’ Receives Journal’s Honorable Mention

A book authored by Timur Hammond, associate professor of geography and the environment in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, received an honorable mention in the 2025 International Journal of Islamic Architecture (IJIA) Book Award competition. The awards…

Snapshots From Route 66: One Student’s Journey to Newhouse LA

“If you ever plan to travel west, travel my way, take the highway that’s the best.” It’s been nearly 80 years since Nat King Cole uttered the now famous lyrics, “Get your kicks on Route 66,” but still to this…

Studying and Reversing the Damaging Effects of Pollution and Acid Rain With Charles Driscoll (Podcast)

Before Charles Driscoll came to Syracuse University as a civil and environmental engineering professor, he had always been interested in ways to protect our environment and natural resources. Growing up an avid camper and outdoors enthusiast, Driscoll set about studying…

Major League Soccer’s Meteoric Rise: From Underdog to Global Contender

With the 30th anniversary of Major League Soccer (MLS) fast approaching, it’s obvious MLS has come a long way from its modest beginning in 1996. Once considered an underdog in the American sports landscape, the league has grown into a…

Rebekah Lewis Named Director of Lerner Center for Public Health Promotion and Population Health

The Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs is pleased to announce that Rebekah Lewis is the new director of the Maxwell-based Lerner Center for Public Health Promotion and Population Health. She joined the Maxwell School as a faculty fellow…

Subscribe to SU Today

If you need help with your subscription, contact sunews@syr.edu.

Connect With Us

  • X
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
Social Media Directory

For the Media

Find an Expert Follow @SyracuseUNews
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
  • @SyracuseU
  • @SyracuseUNews
  • Social Media Directory
  • Accessibility
  • Privacy
  • Campus Status
  • Syracuse.edu
© 2025 Syracuse University News. All Rights Reserved.