Paolina Lu

Woman smiling wearing a dark blue shirt

2024-25 Postdoctoral Scholar

Paolina is an interdisciplinary ethnographer whose current book project on the emergence of the insect agriculture industry approaches food systems solutions to climate change at the intersection of place-based immigrant foodways and future food technologies with a focus on race, affect, and embodiment. 

Education and Degree(s)
  • Ph.D., American Studies, New York University
  • B.A., Individualized Major, Gallatin School of Individualized Study, New York University Major: “The Body: Critical Histories, Theories, and Practices of Embodiment and Labor.”
Honors and Awards
  • 2024: Conference Travel Grant, Association for the Study of Food and Society
  • 2024: Dean’s Conference Fund Award, NYU Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
  • 2023: Dean’s Dissertation Fellowship, NYU Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
  • 2023: Summer Research Award, NYU Department of Social and Cultural Analysis
  • 2023: Conference Travel Award, NYU Department of Social and Cultural Analysis
  • 2023: Provost’s Global Research Initiatives Spring Fellowship, NYU (Athens, Greece)
  • 2023: Dean’s Conference Fund Award, NYU Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
  • 2023: Travel Grant, NYU Student Government Assembly
  • 2022: Predoctoral Summer Fellowship, NYU Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
  • 2022: Summer Research Award, NYU Department of Social and Cultural Analysis
  • 2022: Provost’s Global Research Initiatives Spring Fellowship, NYU (Washington, DC)
  • 2022: Association for the Study of Food and Society (ASFS) BIPOC Fellowship (finalist)
  • 2019: Dean’s Discretionary Travel Grant, NYU Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
  • 2019: Provost’s Global Research Initiatives Summer Fellowship, NYU (Florence, Italy)
  • 2019: Travel Grant, NYU Student Government Assembly
  • 2017: Henry M. MacCracken Fellowship, NYU Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (6 years)
  • 2016: Institute for Recruitment of Teachers Associate Fellowship
  • 2013: Richard J. Koppenaal Award for Distinguished Study, Gallatin’s top academic award for graduating seniors
  • 2013: Phi Beta Kappa
  • 2012: NYU Gallatin Summer China Fellowship
  • 2011: Joe Nkrumah Memorial Arts Grant, NYU Gallatin
  • 2011: Dean’s Award for Summer Research, NYU Gallatin
Publications
  • Lu, Paolina. Under contract. “Catching Taste, Making Place: Foraging for Grasshoppers from Laos to Des Moines,” in Transnational Culinaria: Intersectional and Critical Feminist Foodways. eds. Farha Ternikar and Stephanie Y. Evans. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
  • Lu, Paolina. 2023. “The Low-Tech Side of Agri-Food Tech,” Public Books. https://www.publicbooks.org/the-low-tech-side-of-agri-food-innovation/
  • Lu, Paolina. 2023. Review of Out of Milk: Infant Food Insecurity in a Rich Nation, by Lesley Frank, Food, Culture, & Society, 26 (2). Online 2021: https://doi-org.proxy.library.nyu.edu/10.1080/15528014.2021.1943997
  • Lu, Paolina. 2020. “Why Seek Impossible Foods?” Public Books. https://www.publicbooks.org/why-seek-impossible-foods/