What does your teaching focus on?

Over my time at the University of Oregon, I’ve taught large survey courses including Introduction to Food Studies (ENVS 225) and World History of Food (HIST 215) in addition to many electives including Taste of Power: Food & Colonialism, History of Vegetarianism, the Protein Wars, the History of Beer, and Philosophy of Food. In Siena I taught a new course: Long-Lived: An Exploration of Health & Nutrition in the World’s Oldest Populations. I am developing several new classes including one I will teach spring term, Food & Film. Global studies is a very interdisciplinary department and appeals to me as a historian and someone used to teaching a wide variety of topics and drawing from a range of sources.

What does your research focus on?

My dissertation at the University of Auckland focused on food history and culture in the Cook Islands, a project which is now under contract with the University of Hawaii Press and will hopefully be published in early 2026. My research in Pacific archives and then at the Library of Congress explored links between history, gender, religion, colonialism, and food. More recently I have been exploring our national obsession with protein and the history of nutritional advice focusing on women in colonial settings.

Why UO and GSL?

Students want, and need, to understand the role food plays in helping us get at the most important issues facing us today—sustainability, climate change, resource use, and the ability to deepen our connections to others with curiosity and compassion. I am increasingly convinced that access to food is a basic human right, and that we can and should do much better in ensuring our students can access and afford nutritious and culturally appropriate food—especially as we teach on food-related subjects! 

One of my students recently told me, “Every topic we cover has me reevaluating some part of my life or my behavior or my understanding of the world... This class has really helped ground me, showing me that food is so, so important to health, to culture, to society.” 

I love working with students and colleagues at the UO. What a fantastic place! I’m very grateful for the opportunity to be part of this community.

—Grace Connolly, College of Arts and Sciences