Cooking as Inquiry

Qualitative Research Method

This research method utilizes cooking in order to explore the visceral experiences that arise when one cooks and eats. These visceral experiences are one's bodily sensations and emotions that are evoked while cooking and eating. In this research I wanted to explore how Hobart and William Smith students with varying cultural, ethnic and racial backgrounds experience different spices. More specifically, I am interested in how students' visceral relations with unfamiliar spices can display acceptance of a different culture or distancing of one's self from a specific culture. As a feminist researcher, I believe it is important to make students aware of how their visceral displays of disgust toward a cultural spice can indicate involuntary signs of discrimination.

Research Question

(How) does cultural upbringing, geographic origin and ethnic/racial identity of Hobart and William Smith students influence their visceral experiences of cooking and eating different spices?

What type of visceral/sensory experience do I want to propose to advance this research question?

I want to investigate if one’s affect experience of disgust with an unfamiliar spice is a form of distancing oneself from the culture this spice stems from. I want to learn if these visceral reactions of disgust promote othering, which is the distancing oneself from a group of people that differ from oneself based on their race/ethnicity. If a person exhibits bodily disgust toward a specific spice, is the person displaying power inequality between one’s ethnic/racial identity and the cultural identity connoted with the spice? If so, how can feminist researchers help make people aware that their signs of bodily disgust displays othering? I want to help facilitate a cooking experience, in which people are encouraged to notice their bodily reactions when cooking and eating dishes with unfamiliar spices.

Who will participate?

I will recruit roughly twelve participants from various food-related clubs at Hobart and William Smith College. I believe recruiting students from a variety of ethnic and/or food-related clubs will provide me with students who embrace their cultural background, which most likely has an influential impact on their food experiences. Also by recruiting students from various clubs instead of one ethnic club, I will more likely receive participants who are interested in food and want to take part in the cooking event. Recruiting students from a wide range of ethnic and cultural identities will allow students to try new spices that they may not have eaten before. These visceral experiences of eating different spices will help students gain a better understanding of how their bodies react to cultural difference and how these bodily reactions can invoke signs of “othering.”

The slide show below contains sections on the cooking event, the data collection process, and the type of data I anticipate to collect.

Cooking Event

For the cooking event, twelve or more students from various ethnic and/or food-related clubs at Hobart and William Smith Colleges will participate. During the days leading up to the tasting event, students from each club will cook a dish that relates to their cultural, ethnic and/or racial identity. I will encourage students to pick a dish in which spice is the main focus. If a student or group of students need transportation or place to prepare their dish, I will offer to drive the students and provide them with a kitchen to prep and cook their dish. The food prep time will vary from dish to dish, but I think the tasting event will take roughly an hour.

Each student will bring their ethnic dish to the tasting event. This tasting event will take place at public campus venue, where there is a full kitchen and an open dinning space. The students will be able to try each ethnic dish. I will facilitate a group discussion about their visceral experiences when cooking and tasting the food. I will explain how tasting unfamiliar spices can lead to displays of disgust and how that relates to othering.

I will ask the Provost office for funding for the cooking ingredients. I will also ask students before they participate if anyone has any dietary restrictions or allergies. I will accommodate for any participant who has a dietary restriction.