Dr. Maria Marco, Professor of Food Science and Technology at UC Davis (College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences) in dialogue with Aviaja Lyberth Hauptmann. (https://www.marcolab.net/)

Keywords: fermented foods, microbiology, genetics 

View the video on YouTube: https://youtu.be/avuSS8E3kwU

This series brings together coordinators of the DHI transcollege research cluster Radical and Relational Approaches to Fermentation and Food Sovereignty for interdisciplinary dialogue about fermentation science, Indigenous food sovereignty, performance, feminist science studies, and radical/relational approaches to fermentation. We invite participants with interests in these topics from across campus to join the series and build a research community. 

Professor Maria Marco is a microbiologist with expertise in fermented foods, probiotics, and the human microbiome. Dr. Marco’s research is investigating the microorganisms and processes responsible for making fermented foods and elucidating how foods and probiotic bacteria impact human health. Dr. Marco is leading international efforts to increase shared knowledge on fermented foods, including recognition of the central roles these foods have in traditional diets. In fall 2021 she will co-teach “Radical Storywork: Performing Food Sovereignty through Inuit Fermentation Culture” with Professor Jessica Perea, which advances Inuit knowledges and performing arts processes as a means to unsettle and expand dominant modes of knowledge production in food science research.

About the Radical Fermentation Dialogue Series

View the full series description here.

Our fermented food and food sovereignty discourse and praxis are guided by the following questions: What are fermented foods? What is the current state of knowledge about the contents of those foods and their impacts on our diet and health? What is the significance of radical and relational perspectives in food science research? How are Indigenous fermented foods represented across different disciplines and how might we critically address issues such as sub/conscious bias? Whose stories matter and who decides? Instead of proposing singular truths or facts, this cluster invites participants and audiences to consider the existence of multiple simultaneous truths, all of which are culturally constructed, performed, and in some cases politicized and policed.

Each event will feature a presentation of one scholar’s work, followed by a dialogue led by another research cluster member and questions from event participants.