Cathy Stanton

I'm an interdisciplinary scholar and practitioner working at the intersection of cultural anthropology, public humanities, and food systems change. I completed her PhD in Tufts' Interdisciplinary Doctorate Program and have taught in the Anthropology Department and Environmental Studies Program at Tufts for many years. My classes cover topics relating to food, cities, myth and ritual, and ethnographic methods, and I regularly teache project-based classes with community partners like the Boston Public Market, Tufts Dining, and the City of Somerville, among many others. I was a consultant to the U.S. National Park Service's Ethnography Program for more than 15 years, producing a number of peer-reviewed, publicly-accessible book-length studies of military reenactments, farming, and ethnic, avocational, and seasonal communities associated with national parks.

My published work initially focused largely on the uses of history, heritage, and culture in redevelopment projects, particularly in former industrial settings. My 2006 book The Lowell Experiment: Public History in a Postindustrial City explored the role of those who helped to reframe a New England textile city for the "new economy" of the late 20th century; it won the National Council on Public History Book Award. Since 2010 I've been engaged with food systems issues, first through the lens of heritage and knowledge production but more recently as a very active participant in the for-profit grocery sector. I co-authored the book Public History and the Food Movement: Adding the Missing Ingredient in 2018. My most recent book, Food Margins: Lessons from an Unlikely Grocer, was published in 2024 by the University of Massachusetts Press.