Caitlin Daniel

I am interested in inequality, culture, health, family, and the sociology of food. My research examines how parents across the socioeconomic spectrum decide what to feed their children at a time of growing income inequality and increasing dietary disease. In particular, I examine how parents' food choices arise not just from their material circumstances, but also from the meaning they ascribe to food, family, and childhood. I write about why healthy eating is more expensive than estimates suggest; why low-income parents have an unexpected economic incentive to cater to their children; how food becomes meaningful amidst both poverty and plenty; and how parents judge the food choices of their peers and themselves. This work integrates insights from cultural sociology, public health, and behavioral economics, and will appear in a book entitled Taste and Necessity: Feeding the Next Generation in an Unequal America.

My research has appeared in academic journals including Social Science & Medicine and in media outlets like The New York Times and Civil Eats. This work received an award from the Interdisciplinary Association for Population Health Science for best research by a postdoctoral researcher.