Craig A. Hassel

Associate Professor and Extension Nutritionist

Department of Food Science and Nutrition in the College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences

Research Focus 

• Exploring food and health with cultural communities holding knowledge that does not correspond with Western science perspectives. This work pivots the culture/science relationship as it repositions scientific inquiry alongside ancient, ancestral and experiential understandings of food and health.
• Creating models of cross-cultural engagement that reform scientific inquiry to be more respectful of diverse ways of knowing. Examples include: 1) Using principles of Chinese medical theory and contemporary sensory analysis to explicate medicinal herb quality; 2) Using indigenous heirloom crop varieties, including wild rice, to explore Indigenous and biomedical worldviews; and, 3) Faculty development and cross-cultural symposia that embrace multiple worldview orientations.