The Civic Imagination Project team spent a lot of time during the pandemic thinking about food (and making food) from our own pods and considering the ways that communities get forged, identities get defined, around what we eat and what food we share with others. Out of those discussions has come a special issue of the cultural studies journal, Lateral, focused on “Feeding the Civic Imagination” still in process and scheduled to release in the months ahead. To celebrate and extend the rich mix of formal academic essays there, we invited some of the would-be contributors to participate in a series of dialogues at the intersection of their research. I am going to share these rich and thoughtful conversations over the next three installments. These conversations were overseen by Do Own “Donna” Kim, who was recently award a doctorate in communication from the University of Southern California and accepted a job at the University of Illinois - Chicago. Sangita Shresthova, my longtime research collaborator, has also taken the lead here. The rest of the editorial team consists of Essence Wilson, Isabel Delano, Khaliah Reed, Becky Pham, Javier Rivera, Steven Proudfoot, Amanda Lee, Molly Frizzell, Paulina Lanz.

The Civic Imagination Project team spent a lot of time during the pandemic thinking about food (and making food) from our own pods and considering the ways that communities get forged, identities get defined, around what we eat and what food we share with others. Out of those discussions has come a special issue of the cultural studies journal, Lateral, focused on “Feeding the Civic Imagination” still in process and scheduled to release in the months ahead. To celebrate and extend the rich mix of formal academic essays there, we invited some of the would-be contributors to participate in a series of dialogues at the intersection of their research. I am going to share these rich and thoughtful conversations over the next three installments. These conversations were overseen by Do Own “Donna” Kim, who was recently award a doctorate in communication from the University of Southern California and accepted a job at the University of Illinois - Chicago. Sangita Shresthova, my longtime research collaborator, has also taken the lead here. The rest of the editorial team consists of Essence Wilson, Isabel Delano, Khaliah Reed, Becky Pham, Javier Rivera, Steven Proudfoot, Amanda Lee, Molly Frizzell, Paulina Lanz.

The Civic Imagination Project team spent a lot of time during the pandemic thinking about food (and making food) from our own pods and considering the ways that communities get forged, identities get defined, around what we eat and what food we share with others. Out of those discussions has come a special issue of the cultural studies journal, Lateral, focused on “Feeding the Civic Imagination” still in process and scheduled to release in the months ahead. To celebrate and extend the rich mix of formal academic essays there, we invited some of the would-be contributors to participate in a series of dialogues at the intersection of their research. I am going to share these rich and thoughtful conversations over the next three installments. These conversations were overseen by Do Own “Donna” Kim, who was recently award a doctorate in communication from the University of Southern California and accepted a job at the University of Illinois - Chicago. Sangita Shresthova, my longtime research collaborator, has also taken the lead here. The rest of the editorial team consists of Essence Wilson, Isabel Delano, Khaliah Reed, Becky Pham, Javier Rivera, Steven Proudfoot, Amanda Lee, Molly Frizzell, Paulina Lanz.