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

在斯坦福大学的Duana Fullwiley的指导下，Leslie Grothaus将研究食品科学如何影响政府宣传本国食品以在国际贸易中获得竞争优势的活动。研究将集中在“全球韩食扩张运动”（GHEC）上，这是一项自上而下的韩国国家主导的运动，旨在将韩国的饮食列为世界上最好的。探索这一美食外交活动的方法包括媒体分析、对食品科学研究人员和专业人士的采访，以及在三个食品科学实验室的参与者观察。该项目将研究食品中增强健康成分的科学发现过程和“营养保健品”（经常食用时具有药用特性的食品）的开发。这项研究将有助于食品研究、文化人类学和科学技术。该项目将阐明一个国家如何试图为其美食创造积极的文化和政治联系，并将其美食与“毋庸置疑”的科学话语和民族/国家身份的积极“品牌”联系起来。鉴于人们越来越关注全球健康以及食品和国家饮食之间的联系，该项目不仅有望深入了解韩国在建立这些联系方面的努力，还有望深入了解其他民族国家对食品科学、政治、消费、民族主义和健康的想象、营销和体验方式。这项研究将产生一篇论文和一本针对学术界和普通读者的书。

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.