keralovell

Inspiration: Mapping Chicago from Below

The history of cartography is often remembered as a legacy of white men. With “imperial eyes” (Pratt, 1992), cartographers granted power to largely northern white nation-states through borders and names with the stroke of a pen. From the age of exploration to mid-twentieth century redlining, maps have shaped people, places, histories, and our identities. Ultimately, maps visualizeContinue reading “Inspiration: Mapping Chicago from Below”

Syllabus – Food Histories

Trying to finish a syllabus is nearly impossible. To put the pen down means to admit that your course can never be comprehensive – never conclusive. And when it comes to teaching the history of food (even in the U.S.), it feels impossible to press print. But here’s to beginning complex discussions about food somewhere!Continue reading “Syllabus – Food Histories”

Rosa Parks’s Pancakes & Amelia Earhart’s Waffles

Happy Women’s History Month! Today we’re hitting the archives. Imagine a tip jar: Amelia Earhart’s Sour Cream Waffles versus Rosa Parks’s Peanut Butter Pancakes. Who’s the winner!? I feel a taste-test coming.

Teaching: Mind Mapping American Bodies

In my American Studies courses I ask students to construct a mind map with an accompanying essay reflecting back on the course. The assignment aims to secretly get students to think about a structural analysis of power

Teaching Spotlight: Maps of American Food

I’m in the throes of organizing a course for the American Studies program at Purdue on food studies – a class exploring the connections between food, identity, and place. Today’s visual inspirations are maps I’ve found trying to embed certain recipes within US regions and cities. What could you add to these maps? How would yourContinue reading “Teaching Spotlight: Maps of American Food”

The World’s Best Cookie Recipes

My heart is going to explode with happiness. Food52 just released an infographic (by Jordan Sondler), map, and list with some of the world’s best cookie recipes. I haven’t been able to stop thinking about cookie recipes in preparation for holiday gifts, and now I’m overwhelmed with the urge to retire early and spend theContinue reading “The World’s Best Cookie Recipes”

Homeless for Thanksgiving

This Thanksgiving was probably unlike yours – calm and quiet with almost zero hustle and bustle in the kitchen. I spent the day making Thumbprint cookies with raspberry/cloudberry jam centers for men at The Sleeping Room (the local men’s shelter in Muncie, IN), before serving them dinner. The menu: from-the-box stuffing, from-the-can green beans, 2 cans cranberry sauce,Continue reading “Homeless for Thanksgiving”

Research Spotlight: Skid Row and the Great Wall of LA

In November of 2015 I presented my research on Berkeley’s People’s Park at SACRPH – The Society for American City and Regional Planning History. Because the conference was based in LA, many panels that put theorists, practitioners, and historians in conversation addressed local concerns over the right of the masses to the city. One ofContinue reading “Research Spotlight: Skid Row and the Great Wall of LA”

Reblog: SACRPH 2015: The Politics (and Non-Politics) of the Unplanned City in the US, UK, and Germany

Tropics of Meta Panels at conferences often feel like a hastily assembled mishmash of different things, like a fruit salad made by Mr. Magoo. Scholars who do not know each other and know less about each other’s research work together over email to try to slap together panel proposals that seem just plausible enough to passContinue reading “Reblog: SACRPH 2015: The Politics (and Non-Politics) of the Unplanned City in the US, UK, and Germany”

Meatballs: Italian, Iranian, and Ikea

I grew up eating small, thumb-sized beef meatballs microwaved from their frozen plastic bag and then dumped into a pot of 2 cans of 99 cent Hunts spaghetti sauce. It was heaven.