Abbott Lowell Cummings Postdoctoral Fellow
Claire Bunschoten (she/her/hers) is an interdisciplinary scholar in the field of American studies with research interests in material culture studies, critical food studies, cultural studies, sensory studies, and environmental humanities. She is the Abbott Lowell Cummings Postdoctoral Fellow in American Material Culture at Boston University in the American & New England Studies Program where she teaches courses on material culture, food, and the senses. Her book manuscript building upon her doctoral research investigates vanilla as a flavor, fragrance, and euphemism for race in the United States to understand its cultural uses and meanings, especially in relation to normative identity positions.
Claire holds a Ph.D. and an M.A. in American Studies from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a B.A. in History & American Studies from Bard College. During the 2022-2023 academic year, she served as a Mellon Research Fellow in the Food Humanities at the New York Botanical Garden.