Dr. Ashanté Reese

Biography

Ashanté M. Reese earned her Ph.D. in Anthropology from American University. She works at the intersection of critical food studies and Black geographies, examining how Black people navigate food-related spaces. Her work emphasizes the everyday strategies Black communities use to confront inequities in food access. Her book, 'Black Food Geographies: Race, Self-Reliance, Food Access,' explores themes of antiblackness in food access. This work earned her the 2020 Monograph Award from the Association for the Study of Food and Society and the 2020 Margaret Mead Award from the American Anthropological Association. Additionally, she co-edited the collection 'Black Food Matters: Racial Justice and the Food Justice Movement,' which examines the geographic, social, and cultural dimensions of food in Black life in the U.S. Currently, she is researching the cultural history of sugar in Sugar Land, Texas, focusing on spatial, economic, and carceral implications. Dr. Reese is a committed educator and recipient of the 2020-21 Friar Centennial Teaching Fellowship.

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