While much attention is given to what we eat, less is often said about how we eat—who’s cooking what, for whom? Veronica Peterson, PhD ’25, anthropology, explores these deeper questions through her research on home cooking and community care within the late 19th-century Chinese diaspora. Using historical archaeology, she examines the lived experiences of Chinese immigrants in the US during a time of growing discrimination and segregation, which led to the formation of Chinatowns and other important Chinese American historical sites. A key part of her methodology includes "cooking elicitations," an innovative ethnographic approach developed by Peterson in which she cooks alongside her interviewees. Combining these with artifact analysis, Peterson uncovers how food functions not just as sustenance but as a form of care that can strengthen or weaken historical memory and community ties.
