Congratulations to ISG lecturer Rachel Vaughn for her recent essay publication, “On COVID-19: Food and/as Mutualism” in Gastronomica: A Journal of Critical Food Studies, special issue on Food in a Time of COVID-19 Volume 20: 3, Fall 2020. pp. 108-110 (2020).

Abstract

In this brief reflection, I draw from autobiographical experience as partner to a senior medical practitioner working on the pandemic frontlines in Milan, Italy. I use this experience of the pandemic-now to ponder long-term paradigm shift in light of current destructive food and environmental systems that have shaped the viral leap we currently face. Drawing upon feminist scholarship on mutualism in food and microbes, I argue for an anti-racist ecosystems approach to food and environmental entanglements, one acknowledging the power and potential of microbes to shape the word around us.

To read more of Vaughn’s publication, please click here.