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. From 2023-2025 she served as the Abbott Lowell Cummings Postdoctoral Fellow in American Material Culture at Boston University in the American Studies Program where she taught courses about material culture, food, technology, and the environment. Her book manuscript builds upon her doctoral research to investigate 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, Claire served as a Mellon Research Fellow in the Food Humanities at the New York Botanical Garden. Her work has appeared in Food and Foodways, The Recipes Project, and Aeon, among other outlets.

You may follow Claire’s work on Blue Sky, Twitter, or LinkedIn. You may also contact her by email at claire [dot]bunschoten[at]gmail[dot]com.

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