Amy Trubek, professor and chair of the Nutrition and Food Sciences Department, has been awarded the 2021 Hubert W. Vogelmann Award for Excellence in Research & Scholarship by the UVM College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. A cultural anthropologist, chef, published author, and internationally recognized scholar in food systems research, she joins a select group of past award winners acknowledged for exemplary achievements in their fields.

From her childhood years of watching Julia Child on public television to starting a catering business in high school, Trubek was on a transdisciplinary path that would eventually combine research and education in anthropology and food systems. Her research interests include local and regional food systems, globalization of the food supply, the relationship between taste and place, and cooking as a cultural practice.

"Amy is by nature a transdisciplinary scholar. To advance the understanding and improvement of what some may say is a broken food system, we need to examine issues though that lens," stated Jean Harvey, the Robert L. Bickford, Jr. Professor of Nutrition and Food Sciences at UVM, who nominated Trubek for the award. "Through her scholarly contributions, Amy has advanced the dialogue around food from multiple disciplines and perspectives. Her contribution to this tectonic shift in scholarly approach has been one of her greatest contributions and will likely have an enduring impact on the field."

One of Trubek's long-standing current research interests is facilitating more sustainable connections between food producers and consumers. A recently awarded Robert Wood Johnson Foundation grant will allow her to collaborate with other food system scholars and the Social-Economic Gaming Simulation (SEGS) Lab. This will lead to the creation of a serious game to look at the barriers to getting healthy food grown by small farmers to marginalized communities. For many years she worked with collaborators, stakeholders and graduate students on the potential for the Taste of Place in Vermont and examining the relationship between the tastes of food and drink and geographic locales, the concept of "terroir" that originated in France. Another area of research examines the link between cooking practices, cooking knowledge and individual health, a collaborating research and teaching enterprise that promotes "food agency".

Teresa Mares, UVM associate professor of anthropology, recommended Trubek for the Vogelmann award by stating, "Dr. Trubek’s teaching practice is tightly linked to the foods lab [on campus] and to other cooking spaces, and it is here that her experiential approach flourishes. In using this space, she encourages students to deeply recognize their connections to the food that sustains them, and to the cultural practices revolving around food."

Trubek teaches both undergraduate and graduate courses at UVM, including Basic Concepts of Food, Food, Exchange and Culture, and Food Systems, Society and Policy. She served as director of the UVM Food Systems Graduate Program for eight years and has advised multiple graduate and undergraduate students in their research and academic studies.

Trubek received her undergraduate degree in Sociology/Anthropology from Haverford College, a Ph.D. in Cultural Anthropology from the University of Pennsylvania, and a culinary professional certificate from the Cordon Bleu Cookery School in Paris, France. Her career at UVM began in 2005 as an assistant professor in the Department of Nutrition and Food Sciences, progressed to full professor in 2018, and in 2019 she was appointed to interim chair of the department. Prior to joining the faculty at UVM, she was the executive director of the Vermont Fresh Network and core faculty at the New England Culinary Institute.

Another colleague of Trubek, Associate Professor Cheryl Morse said, "Amy shows us something different: that relationship building is the foundation to advancing learning and doing good things in the world. She says ‘yes’ to ideas that are risky and difficult but have promise. She welcomes people in. She is generous. She trusts others and invites them to shine their individual lights. This is how she has mentored an institution."

The Vogelmann Award honors Professor Emeritus Hubert “Hub” Vogelmann, former chair of the CALS botany department and himself a model for the award’s criteria. The recipient of this annual award has their name engraved on commemorative plaque and receives $2,500, which can be used to support research efforts.