My name is Julie TelRav, Ph.D. and I am sociologist.  I am also an adjunct professor of Sociology, a rabbi’s wife and a part-time-stay-at-home mom to two (mostly) adorable children, which makes me the family shopper, cook and nutritionist.  Yes, like the old television commercial says, I am Dr. Mom.  But, it is through this juggling of roles and jobs, that I have come to realize what it is that I know and do best:  food!

Over a decade ago, I was hired to teach a course entitled Food and Culture at Johnson and Wales University in Denver.  When I was hired for the job, I had to admit that I was more than a little surprised; there was virtually nothing on my CV to suggest that I had any expertise in this subject area.  Yet, all my friends and family, when told of my new role, exclaimed, “Of course! This is your perfect job!”, and they were right!  To know me, even a little, is to know that food and culture have always been my passion, and something I care deeply about.

Food gets right to the core of who we are and how we live.  What and how we eat, where we get our food, and who prepares it tell a cultural story.  Our food habits are reflections of our social identity and values. My goal is to create a forum for discussing our everyday experiences with food by placing them in a social, cultural and historical context.   I’d like to help connect the dots between the many food issues in today’s headlines—food movements, sustainable agriculture, hunger, diet, nutrition, and regulation, to name just a few—and understand how they are relevant to our lives.

I hope that, through this blog, readers will get to know more about me and the topics that I find to be so interesting. Perhaps most importantly, I hope you will join the conversation!