Assistant Professor & Director 
Graduate Program in Heritage Preservation & Conservation

School of Architecture, College of Design

University of Minnesota


Statement of Interest:
Broadly speaking, my research seeks to frame an architectural, planning, and cultural history of urban food marketing in the United States during the twentieth century. A rapidly growing body of research, much of it produced in the last decade, documents a revival of urban food markets due to their multiple contributions to public health, social interaction, and economic development, among other benefits. Less is known about how and why food markets nearly disappeared from the urban landscape by the 1970s. While we have always needed to eat, the socioeconomic and physical infrastructures that have enabled us to do so remain curiously unexamined. I am particularly interested in the rhetorical themes of food market redevelopment, the assumptions, thought processes, and ideologies that informed and influenced the shape our food environments.
I hope that my research with become a “usable history” that may provide insights for contemporary scholars and practitioners as they seek solutions to systematic failures, like food deserts, which may have been the unintended consequences of multiple state-sponsored policies and undertakings. In pursuit of this goal, I have tried to maintain close connections with people working on various aspects of the food system from different disciplines and institutional sectors, including government, non-profit, and academic. These contemporary practitioners and advocates are the “community” I seek to engage with my work. I would, however, like to engage other communities with my research, although I am not sure how, in what forum, or media. Active participation in your Imagining America session would therefore facilitate two professional goals: 1) to stay abreast of contemporary food system trends (so that I can plumb their historical antecedents); and 2) seek new ways to engage with other communities beyond the ones I have already envisioned.

The following are some of my food-system related activities and publications:

“‘Food Slums’ versus Cities of Tomorrow: Urban Planning and Market Reform in Post-War America,” essay to be included in Urban Marketplaces and Food Production in Comparative Perspective, edited by Alfonso Morales for submission to Routledge in late 2011.
“Urban Planning, the Natural Environment, and Public Health,” invited submission with Nancy Wells, Ph.D. Encyclopedia of Environmental Health, edited by Jerome Nriagu, Elsevier, 2011.
“Feeding the City,” Gastronomica: The Journal of Food and Culture 7, no. 4 (Fall 2007): 30-41.
“Creating a Collaborative, Site-based Curriculum,” invited seminar participant, Imagining America: Artists and Scholars in Public Life conference, Seattle, WA, September 25, 2010.
“‘Food Slums’: The Urban Renewal of San Francisco’s Produce Market,” Society for American City and Regional Planning History conference, Oakland, CA, October 2009.
“Planning for Food Systems: From Concept to Implementation,” panelist, Community Food Security Coalition 12th Annual Conference, Cherry Hill, NJ, October 2008.
“History of Food System Planning,” Healthy Start Partnership Meeting, USDA-funded research project by the Cornell University College of Human Ecology, Oneonta, NY, September 2007.
“Planners and the Food System in the Early 20th Century,” Agriculture, Food & Human Values annual conference, Portland, OR, June 2005.
“Preservation Tactics and Financial Incentives for Endangered Food Market Districts,” Project for Public Spaces (PPS) Conference “Great Markets, Great Cities,” New York, NY, November 2002.