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Sarah Bowen

Associate ProfessorAssistant HeadSociology

Picture of Sarah Bowen

Teaching and Research Interests

  • Sociology of Food
  • Health and Inequality
  • Political Economy/Globalization
  • Research Methods

Funded Research

Hardison-Moody, Annie (PI), Lindsey Haynes-Maslow (co-PI), J. Dara Bloom, Lorelei Jones, Carolyn Dunn, Sarah Bowen, Jason Bocarro, Michael Kanters, Aaron Hipp, Michael Edwards, Myron Floyd, and Cintia Aguilar. 2016-2018. “A Multi-Level Approach to Prevent Obesity: Extension and Engagement in Four North Carolina Counties.” Center for Disease Control, $1,582,325.

Bowen, Sarah (PI), Richelle Winkler (co-PI), J. Dara Bloom, and Lillian O'Connell. 2014-2015. "Contextualizing Family Food Decisions: The Role of Household Characteristics, Neighborhood Deprivation, and the Local Food Environment." USDA ERS, $39,848.

Bowen, Sarah (PI), Sinikka Elliott (co-PI), Annie Hardison-Moody (co-PI), Lorelei Jones, Susan Jakes, and J. Dara Bloom. 2011-2016. "Community-Based Approach to Reducing Childhood Obesity in Low-Income Populations: Research to Action." USDA NIFA, AFRI, $3,026,299.

Publications

Books:
(* = equally authored)
  • Bowen, Sarah*, Joslyn Brenton*, and Sinikka Elliott.* Forthcoming. Pressure Cooker: Why Home Cooking Won’t Solve Our Problems and What We Can Do About It. New York: Oxford University Press (expected publication December 2018).
  • Bowen, Sarah. 2015. Divided Spirits: Tequila, Mezcal, and the Politics of Production. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Selected journal articles:
  • Hardison-Moody, Annie, Lillian MacNell, Sinikka Elliott, and Sarah Bowen. Forthcoming. “How Social, Cultural, and Economic Environments Shape Infant Feeding for Low-income Women: A Qualitative Study in North Carolina.” Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.
  • Elliott,* Sinikka and Sarah Bowen.* 2018. “Defending Motherhood: Morality, Responsibility, and Double Binds in Feeding Children.” Journal of Marriage and Family 80(2): 499-520.
  • Elliott, Sinikka, Josephine Ngo McKelvy, and Sarah Bowen. 2017. “Marking Time in Ethnography: Uncovering Temporal Dispositions.” Ethnography 18(4):556-576.
  • MacNell, Lillian, Sinikka Elliott, Annie Hardison-Moody, and Sarah Bowen. 2017. “Black and Latino Urban Food Desert Residents’ Perceptions of Their Food Environment and Factors That Influence Food Shopping Decisions.” Journal of Hunger and Environmental Nutrition 12:3: 375-393. 
  • Bowen, Elizabeth, Sarah Bowen, and Anamika Barman-Adhikari. 2016. “Prevalence and Covariates of Food Insecurity among Residents of Single Room Occupancy Housing in Chicago.” Public Health Nutrition 19(6): 1122-1130. 
  • Jakes, Susan, Annie Hardison-Moody, Sarah Bowen, and John Blevins. 2015. “Engaging Community Change: The Critical Role of Values in Asset Mapping.” Community Development 46(4): 392-406.
  • Gaytan*, Marie Sarita, and Sarah Bowen*. 2014. “Naturalizing Neoliberalism and the De-Mexicanization of the Tequila Industry.” Environment and Planning A 47: 267-28
  • Bowen*, Sarah, Sinikka Elliott*, and Joslyn Brenton*. 2014. "The Joy of Cooking?." Contexts 13(3): 20-25.
  • Bowen*, Sarah, and Marie Sarita Gaytan*. 2012. "The Paradox of Protection: National Identity, Global Commodity Chains, and the Tequila Industry." Social Problems 59(1): 70-93.
  • Bowen, Sarah. “The Importance of Place: Re-Territorializing Embeddedness.” Sociologia Ruralis 51(4): 325-348.
  • Bowen, Sarah. 2010. “Embedding Local Places in Global Spaces: Geographical Indications as a Territorial Development Strategy.” Rural Sociology 75(2): 209-243.
  • Bowen, Sarah, and Ana Valenzuela Zapata. 2009. “Geographical Indications, Terroir, and Socioeconomic and Ecological Sustainability: The Case of Tequila.” Journal of Rural Studies 25(1): 108-119.

Education

  • Ph.D. in Sociology from University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2008
  • M.S. in Rural Sociology from University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2004
  • B.S. in Agricultural and Biological Engineering from The Pennsylvania State University, 2000