UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Halie Kampman, a postdoctoral scholar in Penn State’s Department of Geography, will present "Health in Transition: The Politics of Nutrition and Food Systems Change in Ghana" at the next Department of Geography's Coffee Hour lecture. The talk will be held at 3:30 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 16, and via Zoom.
Kampman will delve into the rapid and dramatic food system transition currently occurring in Ghana, driven by urbanization and globalization. The focus will be on the changing dietary patterns and the corresponding rise in diet-related illnesses such as diabetes, hypertension and heart disease.
Kampman will discuss the risk of applying deterministic models based on Western history and values to these transitions and will explore alternative perspectives through case studies. The first case study examines a local food movement in Accra, the capital city of Ghana, which challenges linear progress notions by utilizing local traditional foods to address modern problems, thereby redefining what is considered local in Ghana’s hybrid postcolonial context.
The second case study investigates perceptions in Tema, a city 16 miles east of Accra, where the rise in new diseases is linked to increased chemical fertilizer use, serving as a metaphor for broader concerns about modernization and its historical and ongoing impacts.
As a postdoctoral scholar working with Brian King, department head and professor of geography, Kampman specializes in the political ecology of health, development studies and food studies. Her current work addresses the impact of COVID-19 on the U.S. opioid epidemic.
She earned her doctorate in environmental studies from the University of California, Santa Cruz. Her dissertation focused on the “nutrition transition” in Ghana, highlighting the shift in diets and health as traditional foods give way to imported and processed foods.
Kampman's talk is part of the spring 2024 "Coffee Hour" seminar series hosted by Penn State’s Department of Geography. To learn more and access the Zoom information, visit the Coffee Hour event webpage.