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为国家食品打品牌以在国际贸易中获得竞争优势的活动。研究将集中在GHEC(全球韩餐)扩张活动上，这是韩国政府自上而下领导的一项努力，目的是将韩国的菜肴评为世界上最好的菜肴之一。探索这场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。国际食品协会将研究食品中有益健康成分的科学发现过程，以及营养食品的开发。这项研究将为食品研究、文化人类学和科学技术做出贡献。该项目将阐明一个州如何试图为其烹饪创造积极的文化和政治联系，并将其烹饪与“毫无疑问”的科学论述和积极的民族/国家认同“烙印”联系起来。鉴于人们对全球健康以及与食品和国民饮食的联系日益关注，该项目承诺不仅将为韩国建立这些联系的尝试提供洞察，而且还将提供对食品科学、政治、消费、民族主义和健康在其他民族国家的想象、营销和体验的方式的洞察。这项研究将产生一篇论文和一本面向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.