A political science prof with a serious food habit

A little personal background: I was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and grew up on Long Island, New York. I came to IU as a junior in 1976. Been here in Bloomington ever since. I live out in the country with my husband and three wonderful dogs. My stepkids have graduated and are off on their own -- one trained as a geologist and lives with her husband and their kids, Elena Grace and Asher Michael, in Durango, Colorado, the other was a landscape architect but is now a Montessori teacher.  She and her husband are the parents of Amelia Marguerite and Paloma Sage, and they live in Portland, Oregon.

My husband, who also teaches political science, and I are authors of an American politics textbook: Keeping the Republic: Power and Citizenship in American Politics. I am also the coauthor, with Matt Streb, of a critical thinking reader, Clued in to Politics.  Among the fun things I do in conjunction with my textbook writing is making regular current events posts on KTRBlog -- Keeping (up with) the Republic. I’ve been a slacker of late but hope to pick it up again with the election season.

Meanwhile, as politics has gotten more contentious, I have branched out into food writing for some gentle (and delicious) relief.  I used to write a biweekly food column for the Bloomington Herald Times, and now I am the food editor for Bloom Magazine.  My cookbook, Indiana Cooks!  Great Restaurant Recipes for the Home Kitchen, with Scott Feickert, photos by Tom Stio, came out with Indiana University Press in the summer of 2005, and Home Grown Indiana: A Food Lover’s Guide to Good Eating in the Hoosier State, with Scott Hutcheson, came out this last summer.  I am currently working on another book for IU Press with Dave and Krissy Tallent called Tallent in the Kitchen. Meanwhile I have been doing some other freelance food writing projects and experimenting with food photography (see the photo album to the left), and I blog.  Challenging, but fun!

In another food related activity, I am a co-director of Slow Food Bloomington.  Slow Food is an international movement with an active U.S. organization that aims to fight the encroaching wave of fast food culture by promoting a way of eating that is local, seasonal, leisurely, and convivial.  What could be better than that?  I've written about Slow Food here, here, and here. There is a Slow Food on Campus Group as well, so if you are interested, let me know and I can direct you to the right people.

I bring my interest in food together with my fascination with politics in a class on Politics and Food which I teach for the Hutton Honors College.  The project currently near to my heart is a book I am writing about Apalachicola -- a small fishing village in the Florida Panhandle that is trying to figure out what it wants to be when it grows up amid plenty of pressure from developers, tourists, second home owners, conservationists, the fishing industry, state government, and even the people upriver in Atlanta.  It's a great story about local politics, wonderful food, and fascinating people, and it's a joy to work on.  We bought a small cottage in Apalach in 2004 and try to get down there when we can for a shot of sun and small town life, and some excellent seafood.

We live our own version of the slow life out in the wilds of Bloomington, where we are visited by lots of deer, raccoons, wild turkeys, and the occasional cow.  We used to have a great vegetable garden but it takes a lot of upkeep and we've kind of fallen behind.  Once upon a time we would grow eight or more different kinds of eggplants (my favorite food) and over a dozen varieties of heirloom tomatoes, but more recently it's been slim pickings.  Thank heavens asparagus and morels come back by themselves!!  We also like to travel and have been to Europe, Asia, and Africa, as well as all over the United States.  We lived in Colchester, England, for a year but my favorite place in the world is France (not unrelated to my love of food!)  We go every chance we get.