CULINARY HISTORIANS OF NEW YORK CONGRATULATES THE 2020 SCHOLARS’ GRANTS RECIPIENTS

Every year, Culinary Historians of New York invites submissions for the CHNY Scholar’s Grant in support of research and scholarship in the field of culinary history.
Since 2012, the CHNY Scholar’s Grant has been recognized by the Julia Child Foundation with generous financial support.
We congratulate the following 2020 Scholar’s Grant recipients:
$3500 – Daniela Gutierrez Flores, Univ Chicago, “Heavenly Foods and Earthly Fires: Cooking and Spirituality in Colonial Latin America.” Through the testimonies of a 17th century black servant in a convent in Peru and an 18th century low-born creole nun in Mexico, Flores will show the understudied role of common colonial Latin American women who helped shape early modern culinary culture through cooking in convents.
$2500 – Patricia Jurado, Gojko Barjamovic, Pia Sörensen; Harvard University Dept. of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations and Harvard’s John Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, “Ancient Bread: An Experimental Approach.” Despite its prominent role in early societies, the origins and development of bread are not well known. This project aims to answer important and unaddressed questions about an early example of bread-making from ancient Mesopotamia c. 3500-1200 BCE.
$1500 – Saman Hassibi and Amir Sayadabdi, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand, “Treasure of Appetite; Food in the 15th Century Iran as told by Boshaq At’ame.” This project aims to systematically analyze the contents of the book of poetry from 1420, to establish the culinary practices common in Iran (Persia) at the time, much of which has remained underexplored.
Past CHNY Scholar’s Grant Winners:
2019: Suzanne Cope, Kerry Knerr, Eric Rath
Suzanne Cope, “Feeding the Revolution: Female Black Panther Party Leaders in New York City and the Power of a Hot Breakfast to Inspire Political Change” ($3500)
2018: Valerio Farris, Aleksandra Bajka-Kopacz, Kathryn Crossley
Valerio Farris, “Culinary Culture of the Spanish Roma” ($3500)
Aleksandra Bajka-Kopacz, “’Old Polish’ Cuisine” ($2500)
Kathryn Crossley, “Butlers and Common Room Men: Wine, Class, and Conviviality in 19th Century Oxford Colleges” ($1500)
2017: Clare Alsup, Elizabeth Zanoni, Tove Danovich
Claire Alsup, “Colatura di Alici: How One Town on the Amalfi Coast Preserved Ancient Roman Fish Sauce” ($3500)

Elizabeth Zanoni ,”Flight Fuel: Pan Am and the Creation of Inflight Cuisines, 1930-1980 ($2500)

Tove Danovich, “When Kosher Isn’t Kosher: 100 Years of Murder, Crime, and Fraud” ($1500)
2016: Stacy Williams, Anthony Buccini
Stacy Williams, “Recipes for Resistance: Culinary Writings from American Feminists, 1875-2005” ($3,500)
Anthony Buccini, “From Kongri to Diri ak Djondjon: Slavery, Creolization, and Culinary Genesis in Saint Domingue and Independent Haiti” ($1,500)
2015: Francis and Bronwen Percival, Emily Arendt
Francis and Bronwen Percival, “Every up-to-date cheesemaker knows: How starter cultures changed cheese, 1880-1930” ($3,500)
Professor Emily Arendt, “Making Politics Palatable: Food and Partisanship in the Early American Republic.” ($1,500)
2014: Joy Fraser, Scott Alves Barton
Professor Joy Fraser, George Mason University, “Honest Poverty versus Foreign Fakery: Popular Histories of Haggis and Culinary Historical Corrective” ($3,500)
Scott Alves Barton, PhD candidate, New York University, “Feeding the Gods: Afro-Brazilian Street Foods and dendé” ($1,500)
2013: Jennifer Wallach, Eric Dursteler
Professor Jennifer Wallach, University of North Texas, “Eating High on the Hog: African-Americans, Food Reform, and Racial Uplift.” ($3,500).
Professor Eric Dursteler, Brigham Young University, “Around the Mediterranean: Foodways and Identity.” ($1,500).
2012: India Mandelkern, Larry H. Spruill
India Mandelkern, PhD candidate, University of California at Berkeley, “In Da Club: Dining and Taste-making in 18th Century London” ($3,500).
Professor Larry H. Spruill, Morehouse College, “Down By the Creek: Cooking with Rebecca Taylor in Early Eastchester’s Guion Tavern” ($1,500).
2010: Kimberly L. Sorensen
Kimberly L. Sorensen, M.A., Bard Graduate Center, NYC, for continuing research on the carved mahogany cake boards used to raise designs on New Year’s Cakes in early nineteenth century New York. ($1,000)
2009: Ellen Schnepel
Ellen Schnepel, Independent Scholar, “The Cooking of History: Early Travelogues as Gastronomic Adventure.” ($1,000)
2008: Willa Zhen
Willa Zhen, PhD candidate, School of Oriental and Asian Studies, London, UK, “The Transmission of Knowledge in Cantonese Cooking Schools.” ($1,000)
2007: Megan J. Elias
Megan J. Elias, Professor, Queensborough Community College, “Cooking the Books: Nationalism, Regionalism, and American Cookbooks, 1865-1917.” ($1,000)
2006: Elizabeth M. Simms
Elizabeth M. Simms, Independent Scholar, “Tuskegee Experiment Station / Papers of George Washington Carver”($1,000). Simm’s paper on George Washington Carver should be freely available via Google Books within the next 6 months in Food and Language: Proceedings of the 2009 Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery.
2005: Elizabeth Alsop
Elizabeth Alsop, PhD candidate, CUNY Graduate Center, “America Eats” Project. ($1,000).
Contributions to the CHNY Scholar’s Grant Fund
Culinary Historians of New York would like to increase the amount or number of grants given in the future and contributions to the scholarship fund are encouraged. Further information is available by writing to us at Scholars@culinaryhistoriansny.org.
Culinary Historians of New York is a tax-exempt organization under § 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Please consult your tax advisor for advice on the tax deductibility of contributions.