Food as Power, Growing as Resistance
Kendall Kubis
Email: kendallkubis2023@u.northwestern.edu
BIO
Kendall Kubis is a 3rd year undergraduate student studying Neuroscience, Global Health, and Communication Sciences and Disorders. She is interested in food security and environmental toxicology and, specifically, how these two come together to impact child health and development. Kendall hopes to continue to study these intersections through pursuing an MD/PhD, intending to use this knowledge to combat health disparities in remote areas. Other interests and hobbies include gardening, reading, and embroidering (@kendalls.crafts on IG).
Q&A
This essay discusses Indigenous food sovereignty, looking at the cultural significance of wild rice and how
federal nutrition programs serve as a form of ongoing colonialism.
I am passionate about restoring our relationship to the land and our food and practice food
sovereignty through involvement with Wild Roots Garden on campus. I decided upon this research
topic as part of ENV_POL 390: Red Power, Indigenous Resistance in the US and Canada.
I think that there is a lot left to study in terms of the ways in which colonialism continues to threaten
foodways through an erasure of culturally-significant seeds like manoomin. Furthermore, there is not much
research explaining the underenrollment of Indigneous peoples in federal nutrition assisstance programs —
this essay puts forth one posssible explanation. Continued research would be necessary to establish the exact
causation of this trend. Understanding this resistance is vital in combatting food insecurity and unlearning colonial
mindsets.
I am hoping to purse an MD/PhD and work to combat food insecurity and healthcare shortages in rural
areas. I would like to continue researching the intersections of health, food, environment, and development
to apply this knowledge to clinical work.
