Dr. Beth Forrest, a professor of liberal arts at The Culinary Institute of America, has been elected the new president of the Association for the Study of Food and Society (ASFS). Dr. Forrest has been a member of the organization since 2005, and has served as secretary on the executive board for the past five years.
As a faculty member in the CIA’s School of Liberal Arts and Food Studies, Dr. Forrest was instrumental in the launch of the college’s Applied Food Studies major in 2015. She currently teaches Food History, The History & Cultures of Europe, and Introduction to Gastronomy at the CIA’s New York campus.
“Being a member of the ASFS executive board brings me, and therefore the CIA, in direct contact with leading scholars across the field of Food Studies,” says Dr. Forrest. “Being elected to this position highlights the CIA’s dedication to the broader consideration of Food Studies and academic scholarship, which serves as a viable path for many of our students through our Applied Food Studies degree.”
Dr. Forrest adds that ASFS is the largest organization of Food Studies scholars in the United States and has been integral in establishing Food Studies as a recognized academic field of study. The ASFS was founded in 1985 with the goal of promoting the interdisciplinary study of food and society. Dr. Forrest’s two-year term as president began on January 1.
“Dr. Forrest has created an academically rigorous approach to food history and gastronomy at the CIA,” says Dr. Denise Bauer, dean of the School of Liberal Arts and Food Studies. “Her election to this position is much deserved.”
Before joining the CIA faculty in 2009, Dr. Forrest was assistant director of the Programs in Food and Wine at Metropolitan College of Boston University, which included running a culinary arts program founded by Julia Child and Jacques Pépin. She was also a lecturer at Boston University and for online food-related courses at the Open University of Catalonia, based in Barcelona, Spain; and teaching assistant/teaching fellow in the History Department at Boston University.
Beth Forrest holds her PhD, Master of Arts, and Bachelor of Arts degrees from Boston University. Her doctoral dissertation looks at the role of food and senses in creating Spain in the 19th century. She is currently writing a book called Disappearing Delicacies and is editor of two upcoming volumes, Sauces in the Western World and Food in Memory and Imagination.
