Dr. Claire Bunschoten (she/her/hers) is an interdisciplinary scholar in the field of American studies working with material culture methods and theory across critical food studies, sensory studies, science and technology studies, and the environmental humanities. She is the Abbott Lowell Cummings Postdoctoral Fellow in American Material Culture at Boston University in the American Studies Program where she teaches courses on material culture, food, technology, and the environment. Her book manuscript building upon her doctoral research investigates vanilla as a flavor, fragrance, and euphemism for race in the United States to analyze the cultural production of social norms in the past and present.

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.

You may follow Claire’s work on Twitter or contact her by email at rcbuns[at]bu[dot]edu.

Photos featured on this site are by the author or Marlon Co c/o NYBG.