ANSO Food and Health Presentation in Anchorage Alaska

Dr. Lauren Wynne, Assistant Professor of Anthropology, and Neve Durrwachter, an Anthropology and Sociology major, attended the annual joint meeting of the Association for the Study of Food and Society (ASFS) and the Agriculture, Food, and Human Values Society (AFHVS) in Anchorage, Alaska, this June. Several hundred food scholars and activists from across the globe attended the meeting, hosted this year by the University of Alaska – Anchorage and Alaska Pacific University. Event locations ranged from the two campuses to the Anchorage Museum and the Alaska Native Heritage Center. 

Wynne and Durrwachter presented their paper, “The Emergence of Orthorexia: Purity and Pathology in Contemporary Eating” as part of a panel on food and health. The paper was based on preliminary research the two have been doing on orthorexia nervosa, described as an unhealthy fixation with healthy eating. Their paper tracked the history of the condition, first named in 1996, and provided a critical analysis of proposed diagnostic criteria. This work is in preparation for a larger ethnographic project that Wynne will undertake in the coming years, with Durrwachter’s assistance. 

Wynne and Durrwachter also attended presentations on a range of topics, including indigenous food sovereignty, Latinx foodways, and food studies pedagogy.