Fellows, Scholars, & Interns 2022

As an Andrew W. Mellon Humanities for the Public Good Graduate Fellow, Claire produced Nerds in the Woods, a podcast with the National Humanities Center. Her writing has appeared in Social Text, Food, Culture, and Society, Stanford Arcades, among others. She holds an M.A. in American Studies from UNC-Chapel Hill and a B.A. from Bard College.

Project

During her time at NYBG, Claire will work with the LuEsther T. Mertz Library and Archives’ collection of monographs and records from the 19th and 20th centuries to track the efforts of the federal government to cultivate the vanilla orchid in the U.S. and its territories. Since her dissertation and future book project embrace a wide range of objects as texts, she also looks forward to spending time with the William and Lynda Steere Herbarium’s specimens.

Audrey earned her master’s of public health at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health in 2017 and spent three years working at NYC Department of Homeless Services medical office. Her experiences as a city worker and community member, particularly in uptown Manhattan, have grounded her work in justice, collaborative approaches, and pathways for equitable, healthful futures.

Project

For her dissertation research project at the Humanities Institute, Audrey is analyzing data from the NYBG’s Bronx Foodways Oral Histories Project to develop a rich map of the networks of plants, seed savers, gardeners, food-based activists, and other key actors in the South Bronx. Using multimedia methods to tell the evolving stories of three locally-important culinary plants and their relationships to people in the South Bronx, this work will highlight on-going transformations in local food traditions and infrastructures.

His 2021 cookbook Bress ‘n’ Nyam — “Bless and Eat” in the English-based creole of the Gullah Geechee people of the Carolina, Georgia and northern Florida coasts— pays tribute to the land, food, and heritage that has nurtured his family for seven generations. A 2018 semifinalist in the James Beard Awards Best Chef in the Southeast category, Raiford has been featured in the New York Times, Bon Appetit, and Southern Living.

Project

During the summer of 2022 Raiford is conducting research at the New York Botanical Garden for a new book, focused on collards:

“The thought of this research is to create a timeline of how the colewort name changed to collards by using historical, agricultural and culinary writings to then create a cookbook stepped in historical content. The first time I heard the name colewort was when I was having a conversation with Dr. Jessica B. Harris about wanting to do research on the collard and its underutilization in the culinary world and how kale became this household name. The Latin name for collards was only learned by me twelve years ago when I attended The Center for Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems (CASFS); I remember bursting out saying, ‘wait….. there are LATIN words for collards!?’ My instructor, Owen Martin, chuckled and again said, ‘Brassica oleracea var. acephala, or Collards’.”

Her scholarly interests include black geographies and indigeneity, eco-womanism, and black faith traditions. She also enjoys cultivating gardens, creating poetry, paintings, and visual media to create conversation and raise sociopolitical consciousness. As an artist and scholar-activist, she is deeply invested in an interdisciplinary approach to political education and creative expression.

Project

During the Summer of 2022, Nailah worked closely with NYBG Bronx Green-Up team to identify and interview eight community garden leaders. She helped edit and transcribe the recordings and also oversaw photo shoots of interviewees and their settings by students from the Bronx Documentary Center.

Miriam holds a BA in History from Barnard College and an MA in Oral History from Columbia University. Prior to attending graduate school, Miriam worked for many years as a scuba instructor in the Caribbean, Alaska and Australia.

Project

During the Summer of 2022, Miriam worked closely with NYBG Bronx Green-Up team to identify and interview eight community garden leaders. She helped edit and transcribe the recordings and also oversaw photo shoots of interviewees and their settings by students from the Bronx Documentary Center.