Doctoral Dissertation Research: A Case Study in Food Science, International Trade, and Branding

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Under the supervision of Duana Fullwiley of Stanford University, Leslie Grothaus will examine how food science influences government campaigns to brand national foods to gain a competitive advantage in international trade. Research will be focused on the GHEC (Global Hansik [Korean Cuisine] Expansion Campaign), a top-down state-led push in South Korea to rank its cuisine among the world's finest. Methods used to explore this gastro-diplomacy campaign include media analysis, interviews with food science researchers and professionals, and participant observation at three food science laboratories. The PI will study the scientific discovery process for health enhancing components of foods and the development of 'nutraceuticals' (foods designed to have medicinal properties when consumed regularly).This research will contribute to food studies, cultural anthropology and science and technology. This project will illuminate the ways in which one state is attempting to create positives cultural and political links to its cuisine, and to link their cuisine to the 'unquestionable' discourse of science and the positive 'branding' of national/state identity. Given increasing concerns about global health and links to food and national diets, this project promises to provide insight into not only South Korea's attempts to make these linkages, but the ways in which food science, politics, consumption, nationalism, and health are imagined, marketed, and experienced in other nation states. The research will result in a dissertation and a book directed to both academics and a general audience.