Team Leads
Lead
Jo Sharma
Associate Professor, University of Toronto Scarborough
Jo (Jayeeta) Sharma is an Associate Professor in the Historical and Cultural Studies Department and a member of the Graduate Departments of History and the Study of Religion at the University of Toronto. Her research examines food, mobilities, labour, family and gender in imperial and postcolonial spaces, including the city of Toronto. Jo is also a partner of the Food Health Ecosystems Lab.
University of Toronto Scarborough Research Associates
Noah Allison
Culinaria Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Toronto
Noah Allison is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Toronto’s Culinaria Research Centre. His research explores everyday city life in the context of migration, politics of difference, inequality, and governance. His current book project explores how diversity is marketed in city-making projects and contested in multigroup settlements on the urban peripheries of New York City, Los Angeles, Houston, and Toronto.
Nino Bariola Gonzales
Culinaria Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Toronto
Nino Bariola is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Toronto’s Culinaria Research Centre. His interests include food culture and race, sustainability, and gender and racial inequalities in organizations. Bariola’s research appears in American Behavioral Scientist, Conservation Biology, Regional Studies, and other academic journals and books.
Siera Vercillo
Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Toronto Scarborough
Siera’s research is broadly located in the fields of feminist geography, political ecology and critical development studies. Her work specifically focuses on linking the literature on agrarian and nutrition transitions, smallholder livelihood development, food sovereignty, rural-to-urban food systems, and household food security in northern Ghana where she has been working within communities for the past 10 years.
Joel Dickau
Graduate Affiliate, Project Coordinator, University of Toronto
Joel is an (almost) graduate of the U of T history department’s Ph.D. program. His dissertation is a sensory history of the American food industry that focuses on food texture to examine how scientists have tried to resolve political tensions between consumers and producers. He also researches the history of Toronto’s foodways as the manager of the Tasting the Global City project and is a member of the Culinaria Research Centre hosted at UTSC.
University of Toronto-St. George Research Associate
Jaclyn Rohel
New Media Public Humanities Fellow, Jackman Humanities Institute, University of Toronto
Jackie Rohel is a 2022-23 New Media Public Humanities Postdoctoral Fellow at the Jackman Humanities Institute. Her research focuses on food provisioning and the ethics of hospitality in diverse cities. A Food Studies scholar by training, Jackie brings an applied interdisciplinary approach to her work, with a focus on community-engaged research and experiential education. She has contributed to Feeding City since 2020, jointly leading research and pedagogical activities in areas such as community food supports, markets, and knowledge mobilization and multimedia outreach. Her prior work has appeared in Food, Culture, and Society, Global Food History, and Gastronomica.
Current Undergraduate Research Assistants
Rayah Flash
Olivia Rodrigo
Fatima Varayuri
Current Interns
Daphne Berberyan
Bavan Pushpalingam
Serena Yuan
Past Team Members
Shirin Arghandeh (2020)
Adam Bishop (2021-2023)
Joseph Cammisuli (2020)
Eileen Chen (2021)
Cheryl Cheung (2020-2022)
Lynne Chia (2020)
Laurie Courtney-Brooke (2020)
Chantelle DeCunha (2021)
Matilda Dipieri (2020-2022)
Madeleine Frechette (202o-2023)
Eleonora Gagliardi (2020)
Angela Gong (2020)
Lindsay Goodridge (2020-2021)
Stella-Luna Ha (2020)
Yusra Khalid (2020-2021)
Hannah Klemmensen (2020-2022)
Dora Latalisa (2021)
Jeffrey Liu (2020-2021)
Qi Annnie Liu (2021)
Juan Lloren (2020)
Amber McNeil (2021-2023)
Nida Mizra (2020)
Amira Namasivayam (2020)
Yianni Pantis (2021-2022)
Shathvahi Ramesh (2021-2023)
Patrick Ren (2021-2022)
Olivia Rodrigo (2020-2021)
Sebastian Rojas (2021)
Jaime Rosenfeld (2020-2022)
Ruth Siew (2020)
Sterling Stutz (2020)
Veronica Wahba (2020-2022)
Bethany Wong (2021-2022)