Nancy McHugh, Associate Professor of Philosophy at Wittenberg University in Ohio, says the fear of bacteria, hormones, and antibiotics is rampant in our society. She is interested in the ways we go about making knowledge and ignorance about food and its relationship to health and argues that these practices have led to a new food movement, “clean eating,” which in turn has generated a new eating disorder, orthorexia, or righteous eating.
Nancy McHugh gave two presentations at Utah State University in March 2015:
She explored how what we see in the media and popular culture influences what we eat every day in her lecture titled “Food Fear” as a part of the Tanner Talks series presented by USU’s College of Humanities and Social Sciences. The 2014–15 Tanner Talks was a series of cross-disciplinary events focusing on the theme "Food: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow."
The USU Center for Women and Gender sponsored a brown bag lunch presentation titled “Mothers, Community Activism, and Toxic Waste.” Professor McHugh led a discussion of her research examining a community in California with high rates of illness related to environmental hazards.
Nancy McHugh is Associate Professor of Philosophy and Department Chair at Wittenberg University. Her Ph.D. is from Temple University, where she was also a Visiting Assistant Professor of Philosophy for two years and the Associate Director of the Awareness of Teaching and Teaching Improvement Center. Her M.A. is from Cleveland State and her B.A. is from Lake Erie College. She is author of articles on feminist philosophy of science. Her books include “The Limits of Knowledge” (published by SUNY Press).
