CultureShift Conversations—Honoring Life: A Taste of Indigenous and Decolonial Perspectives
Register below to join us for our final CultureShift Conversation of 2021!
We will be talking with Claudia Serrato, an Indigenous culinary anthropologist and professor of ethnic studies. The conversation will explore Indigenous knowledge systems as a way to honor life while providing decolonial food for thought towards rethinking what it means to be in a relationship with food, land, and each other.
What Do We Mean By CultureShift?
FFAC catalyzes fundamental change by educating individuals and institutions about the consequences of our current food system—to humans, animals other than humans, and the planet, and by empowering them to work towards a society that values equity and sustainability.
What is the format?
These will be virtual community events held meeting-style over Zoom. All attendees are invited to keep their videos on, and participate in the post-interview discussion portion of the event. The first half hour will be an interview between FFAC staff and Claudia. During the second half hour, our guest will answer your questions live. Both portions will be recorded and shared with all registrants. Following the hour, there will be an optional, unrecorded 15-minute breakout room session to debrief and connect with community members working to end factory farming.
About Our Guest
Claudia Serrato is an Indigenous culinary anthropologist, a public scholar, a doctoral candidate, and a professor of ethnic studies.
She was born and raised in Los Angeles, California predominantly on a P'urhépecha, Huasteca, and Zacateco diet. At an early age, she began to cook alongside her elders, gaining time-tested food knowledge.
Claudia centered these knowledges in her academic studies, arriving to the conclusion in 2007 that decolonizing the diet was essential to the survival of Indigenous foods and foodways.
This granted her numerous opportunities to present, speak, publish, and facilitate workshops in her community, educational institutions, and conferences gaining national and public recognition.
In addition, since 2014 Claudia has been actively involved in the Native food justice and sovereignty movement and has been cooking alongside prominent Indigenous chefs at cultural food gatherings, summits, and pop-ups throughout Turtle Island (North America).
Claudia was a featured chef at the Agriculture, Food, and Human Values Society and the Association for the Study of Food and Society Conference in 2018 and in 2015 was granted an honorary title of sous-chef de cuisine by the Native American Culinary Association.
She has been invited to speak on public radio and podcast programming such as Feminist Magazine, Animal Voices, Toasted Sister, Native American Calling, and For the Wild.
Claudia has also been featured by the LA Times Food Bowl, LA Ford Philharmonic Association, New York Times, New York Times Cooking channel, ABC Primetime, Univision, Popsugar., and REMEZCLA.
She is cofounder of Across Our Kitchen Tables, a women of color culinary hub and event series founded in 2017 that generates and supports socially responsible food-based work by women of color.
Claudia holds a stream of degrees starting with a Bachelor's degree in Gender, Ethnicity, and Multicultural Studies, a Master's in Mexican American Studies, a second Master's in Anthropology, and is currently completing a PhD in sociocultural anthropology from the University of Washington, Seattle.
She is currently a teaching scholar at California Polytechnic University Pomona (Cal Poly).
Claudia lives in Los Angeles with her husband and two children.
