Marcia Chatelain, PhD, a professor of History and African American Studies at Georgetown University, says her 2020 book, “Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black America,” “examines the intersection of the post-1968 civil rights struggle and the rise of the fast food industry.”

Chatelain will present her talk, “Fighting for Food Justice with History: Fast Food, Black Struggle and Strong Communities,” at 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 17, in the Stetson Room (CUB 203) on the DeLand campus. Masks are required.

The event will include both in-person attendance and a virtual presentation. Online attendees should pre-register. Cultural Credit is available.

The talk is sponsored by Stetson’s Sustainable Food Systems program (an interdisciplinary minor) and the Department of History, and is a relaunch of the College of Arts and Sciences’ J.A. Stewart Lectures. Established in 1990, the lecture series has brought Desmond Tutu, former President Jimmy Carter and others to campus, and seeks to stimulate awareness of and critical reasoning about important current ethical concerns.

Chatelain’s research has included the fast food industry as well as Black food history. Her course on “African American Food Culture” looks at how communities not only prepare foods and preserve their cultures, but also the politics of consumerism and advertising. “Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black America” was awarded the 2021 Pulitzer Prize in History.

The website hungercenter.org says food justice “seeks to ensure that the benefits and risks of where, what, and how food is grown, produced, transported, distributed, accessed and eaten are shared fairly. Food justice represents a transformation of the current food system, including but not limited to eliminating disparities and inequities.”

“Food justice works to eliminate the inequities in food systems,” said Tara Schuwerk, PhD, director of Sustainable Food Systems and associate professor and chair of Communication and Media Studies. “Access to healthy food is a human right and food justice, as a movement, seeks to solve food insecurity, among other systemic environmental and policy issues that prevent food equality.

“Dr. Chatelain’s research helps deepen our understanding of how race, civil rights and food are intertwined in the United States. The upcoming lecture by Dr. Chatelain, a talented scholar and story-teller, is a superb opportunity to learn and think critically about our communities and food justice.”

— Rick de Yampert