2012 Innovative ETD Award
Ph.D. Leadership & Change
Antioch University, USA
In her dissertation, Claire Menck revisited the twice-told tales of New Orleans’ tragic flooding with a unique perspective – food, and did so with a research methodology and reporting format that involved several media. Mench looked at New Orleans, five years after the events surrounding Hurricane Katrina, and asked: Is food a way for individuals and groups to make meaning following critical change events such as the failure of the federal levee system in New Orleans? Her study found there are 4 common leadership discourses in talking about food in relation to critical change including culture, ecology, economics and politics. This dissertation integrates multimedia to express data and findings, and is accompanied by 26 audio files, truly bringing to life the dissertation text with rich oral histories by research participants.
Claire is an international award winning chef, restaurateur and scholar. She is also a passionate advocate for social media and research in disaster recovery with continuing work on her Website Girlchef.
Thesis:
Recipes of Resolve: Food and Meaning in Post-Diluvian New Orleans
