The ecology of eating : a comparative, cross - cultural perspective on material and immaterial cues in the environment

Dr. Claude Fischler earned his PhD in sociology from the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) in Paris. Fischler took on food and eating as his main object of research in the mid seventies. Working in a deliberately interdisciplinary perspective, he explored the structure and function of cuisines, taste and preferences, body image and their evolution and change over time and space (L’Homnivore, Paris: Seuil, 1990, 2001; to be published in english by University of California Press).

His recent work focuses on perception of foodborne risk, “scares” and crises, on comparative approaches of attitudes toward food and health across cultures in relation to prevalence of obesity, and on assessment and measurement of well being and quality of life in a comparative perspective.

Dr. Fischler is a “Directeur de recherche” at CNRS, the national research agency of France, and the head of the Center for Transdiscliplinary Studies - Sociology, Anthropology, History (CETSAH), a research and graduate studies unit of CNRS and Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris.

He served on the Scientific Committee and the Expert Committee on Human Nutrition of AFSSA, the French Agency for Food Safety, and on its board of directors.

He is a member of the steering committee of the French National Program on Nutrition and Health and serves on the Expert Advisory Group on Risk Communication at EFSA, the European Food Safety Authority.