Presenter: Athia N. Choudhury, Ph. D

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The calorie is everywhere. Its numeric value supposes a neutrality which informs personal choices, nutritional guidelines, supplementary food programs, military rations and foreign aid packages– all of which outline what the citizen-body needs and looks like. This talk uncovers the racial life of the American calorie, tracking practices of energy management and bodily discipline from U.S. military outposts to a range of colonial reform projects that used calories as a tool to frame responsible eating through the domestic practices of the new American woman during the 20th century. More broadly, by offering an object oriented history of biopower through the calorie, this talk interrogates how wellness and diet culture become major ideological exports of U.S. empire that produce global consumers whose nutritional and medical decisions become racially coded and gendered.

For any accommodation questions, please contact Juliann Anesi at anesi@hawaii.edu.