Hutchins Lecture by Jessica B. Harris

Jessica B. Harris, Professor of English and Culinary History at Queens College/C.U.N.Y, will deliver an address titled “Links in the Chains: Culinary Connectedness in the Atlantic World.” The lecture will examine the cultural and culinary connections shared by the foodways of the African Atlantic World. This event will be held in the Kresge Foundation Room, 039 Graham Memorial Hall.

Jessica B. Harris is the author of twelve cookbooks documenting the foods and foodways of the African Diaspora. Her most recent, High on the Hog: A Culinary Journey from Africa to America, won the International Association of Culinary Professionals 2012 cookbook award for culinary history. Her other books include guidebooks to France and Paris, a French text, and a book documenting the beauty secrets of women of color. An award-winning journalist, Dr. Harris has contributed to popular publications ranging from Essence to Saveur to German Vogue. Dr. Harris holds degrees from Bryn Mawr College, Queens College, The Université de Nancy, and New York University.

Dr. Harris was the inaugural scholar in residence in the Ray Charles Chair in African-American Material Culture at Dillard University in New Orleans, where she established an Institute for the Study of Culinary Cultures. Dr. Harris is currently a professor at Queens College/C.U.N.Y. and is at work establishing an Institute for connecting culinary cultures. In 2012, she was asked by the Smithsonian Museum of African American History and Culture to consult on the development of their new cafeteria.