I am a third year PhD candidate in the Centre for Medical History at the University of Exeter. Broadly put, my research interests revolve around the history of healthy eating, food as medicine, gender’s impact on healthy eating practices, and the history of supplements and food in popular culture.
In 2013 and 2014 I completed my BA and MRes in History at the University of Leicester. My MRes thesis was entitled ‘Superfoods and Healing in England and Cyprus 1900-2014’. Whilst at Leicester I also served as the Public Engagement officer for the Centre for Medical Humanities.
My current PhD research is an interdisciplinary project focusing on the history of healthy eating and supplementation during the late twentieth and the early twenty-first centuries. Specifically, I am interested in understanding how the press, government agencies, medical professionals and various institutions of popular culture have promoted the consumption of superfoods and supplements as a route to a healthier life. Central here is an analysis of how constructions of masculinity have affected eating and supplementation. My source base is varied, and alongside clinical studies and government documents, I explore representations and experiences contained in various written and visual media – from films, television and comic books to broadsheet and tabloid newspapers, lifestyle magazines, and self-help books.