Carolyn Mason is a second year Ph.D. Cultural Anthropology student with a concentration in Medical Anthropology at Southern Methodist University. Her research focuses on how Black Americans connect their health with cultural and place-based foodways. She received her B.A. in Anthropology from George Mason University, where she completed her first published research project, a podcast titled “Bigger Fish to Fry.”
“Bigger Fish to Fry” is podcast series focusing on the food history of enslaved people, the nutrition of enslaved people, and the legacy that slavery, health, and diet have on modern populations. I want to answer the following question:
How did the foodways of enslaved people, including their diet and nutrition, affect their health? For American black people, the history of our ancestors is often limited to the struggles and suffering that they endured. This podcast is meant to bridge the gap between academic and non-collegiate audiences, who deserve to understand the lives of their ancestors.
She has recently joined the Cairns Lab to learn more about how food and the environment shape one another, affecting the bodies of marginalized peoples.