I’m interested in understanding the meaning of food and food activism to young people (around 18-24), and the environmental and social contexts that shape their experiences. More specifically, I’m interested in learning about the role of young people in food activism and the burgeoning food movement, and to understand first, who are these young food activists and what was their path for becoming activists, and second, to what extent and how are they influencing food policy. Through life story interviews, I’m hoping to understand how young people participate in this new era of food movements, how they perceive these movements, how it influences their understanding of food, the food environment, health, and social justice, and the tools and strategies (ie, social media/technology) they’re employing to impact food policy.

For this project and my research, I’d like to develop some sort of platform to add a technological/visual/media component to the life histories — so that there’s a space for communication and sharing — and so that we (in public health) can begin to develop ways to better collaborate with and engage young people through the use of technology. Some ideas include a blog-like site for young activists to connect (though this will likely have to be closed to the public given IRB?), a web-based participatory mapping project, video journals or a participatory video project, or content analysis of social media tools they utilize.