A Road Scholar program by Bruce Kraig

All living creatures eat, but among humans the process of ingestion carries immense burdens of culture. Eating bears more rituals, taboos, jokes, stories and all else that we call “culture” than any other aspect of life, besides procreation. Using a submarine sandwich as an example, Bruce Kraig deconstructs its ingredients and explains how food history is a key to understanding everything human, from world and American history to social organization, economics, and ways of thinking about the world. This is an entertaining approach that works well with audiences of all ages and is useful to teachers.

Bruce Kraig is an accomplished scholar in the history of food within the larger context of the social and cultural history of the United States. He holds a PhD from the University of Pennsylvania and has won numerous awards including the Silver Apple Award for “Hidden Mexico,” and an Emmy and CHRIS awards for the program “Hidden China,” as well as the Gold Apple and Bronze Medal for the program “Food for the Ancestors.”

For more information contact Debbie Miller, 847.882.3698.