JENNIFER SWEENEY TOOKES (2013)
POSITIONS:
Associate Professor, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Georgia Southern University
Adjunct Faculty, Environmental Sciences, Emory University
EDUCATION:
Liberal Studies BA, 1999, California State University, Northridge
Cultural Anthropology MA, 2004, California State University, Northridge
Anthropology MA, 2009, Emory University
PhD in Anthropology, 2013, Emory University
PUBLICATIONS:
PhD Dissertation
- (2013) Rice and Peas in the Diaspora: Food, Health, and the Body among Barbadian Migrants in Atlanta. Emory Theses and Dissertations (ETD).
Articles
- (2015) Tookes, Sweeney Jennifer. “The food represents”: Barbadian foodways in the diaspora. Appetite.
- (2018) Tookes, Sweeney Jennifer, Peggy Barlett, Tracy Yandle. The Case for Local and Sustainable Seafood: A Georgia Example. Culture, Agriculture, Food and Environment.
- (2020) Tookes, Sweeney Jennifer, Tracy Yandle, Cynthia Grace-McCaskey. US Virgin Islands Fishing Community Resilience: Informing a Research Agenda Coastal Management. Coastal Management.
- (2021) Tookes, Sweeney Jennifer, Tracy Yandle. “You Can’t Catch ‘Em and Sell ‘Em”: Perceptions of Obstacles to Direct Marketing among Georgia Fishers. Human Organization.
- More located on Jennifer Tookes’ webpage: https://works.bepress.com/jennifer-tookes/
BIOGRAPHY:
Dr. Jennifer Sweeney Tookes completed her PhD in Anthropology from Emory University in 2013 with mentorship with Dr. Peter Brown. Her research interest lies in examining the role that culture plays in influencing conversations surrounding ethical and sustainable eating. In one of her most recent publications, Tookes specifically analyzes consumer dialogue in the state of Georgia to understand perceptions of sustainability when it comes to the harvesting of seafood products. She has additionally conducted longitudinal fieldwork in other areas of the Caribbean and the Southern United States with various communities who are involved in the industry of seafood production.
According to her PhD dissertation, Tookes engages in a three-tiered approach that considers the intersectionality between cultural meanings of food, perceptions of body composition, and subsequent behaviors related to exercise and other physical activity. She uses methods from applied cultural anthropology when engaging with her two research communities: Barbadian women living in Atlanta, Georgia, and a counterpart cohort living in Barbados. Her research seeks to explore significant differences in health between these two focus groups–specifically explaining why women living in Barbados have better health outcomes than migrant Barbadian women living in Atlanta. While cultural guidelines on food consumption have been shown to influence healthy eating practices, Tookes’ findings suggest that physical activity levels may play a more salient role in explaining varying health outcomes for these two populations. As such, she advises for more anthropological research and health educational efforts targeted towards understanding how physical activity mediates the relationship between culture and health.
Since graduating from Emory University, Dr. Tookes has worked as an associate professor at Georgia Southern University where she teaches cultural anthropology in the joint department of Sociology and Anthropology.
SYMPOSIUM PRESENTATION SLIDES:
