About
Emily Contois, Ph.D., researches media within consumer culture, focusing on how identities are formed at the vital intersection of food, the body, and ideas about health. She is the author of “Diners, Dudes, and Diets: How Gender and Power Collide in Food Media and Culture” (University of North Carolina Press, 2020) and co-editor of “Food Instagram: Identity, Influence, and Negotiation” (University of Illinois Press, 2022). Her current book project explores how ideas about elite athleticism have infiltrated everyday American life. A richly interdisciplinary scholar, her academic work has been published in Advertising & Society Quarterly, American Studies, Feminist Media Studies, Gastronomica, and Fat Studies, among others.
A public expert on a wide variety of topics, she has also written for NBC News, Jezebel, and Nursing Clio; been interviewed on podcasts, such as “The Sporkful,” “Gastropod,” “KCRW Good Food,” and “CNN Margins of Error;” and appeared on “CBS This Morning” and “Ugly Delicious” on Netflix. Her media mentions include the New York Times, the Washington Post, Vox, Slate, and more. Deeply committed to her students, she teaches an array of critical media studies courses, as well as Intro to Women’s and Gender Studies.
Education
- Ph.D., American Studies, Brown University
- M.A., Brown University
- MLA, Gastronomy, Boston University
- MPH, Public Health Nutrition, University of California, Berkeley
Research interests and areas of expertise
- Media studies
- Popular culture
- Food studies
- Gender studies
- Critical nutrition studies
- Critical health studies
- Fat studies
- American studies
- History of medicine
- 20th-century U.S. history