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The Capstone experience at NYU Steinhardt’s Food Studies program serves as more than just a final requirement; it is a dedicated space for students to take intellectual risks and pursue unconventional paths of inquiry.
This culminating work allows you to define your own academic terms, transforming your specific interests into a substantial contribution to the field.
These projects take many forms, ranging from professional restaurant proposals and marketing plans to academic research papers and long-form journalism. Guided by expert faculty, students frequently explore creative mediums such as zines, memoir-style magazines, multimedia storytelling, or even the development of original course syllabi. Explore student work and see firsthand the rigor and creativity that define the culmination of the program.
Student Projects
Julie Park
Julie’s capstone consists of two interconnected works: a photobook titled Finding My Place in the Ritual and an academic paper, Eating with the Ancestors: Ritual Food Offerings and the Politics of Memory in Contemporary Korea. The photobook uses photography and auto-ethnography to document Korean ancestral rites (jesa) as lived, evolving practices within her family, while the academic paper situates these experiences within the broader historical framework of Confucian patriarchy, modernization, and gendered ritual labor.
Bella Schnee
Family Meal: Food, Memory, and the Making of Home is a research-creation project that explores how food practices function as living archives within diasporic families. Using her own family as a case study, the project brings together handwritten recipes, oral histories, photographs, home videos, recreated dishes, and official documents to trace migration, identity, and adaptation. The work takes the form of a printed magazine paired with an academic reflection.
Ketaki Malaviya
Ketaki’s paper explores what the upper-class diaspora espouses as “Indian” through their culinary landscape by examining what food they are eating or cooking at home, what they offer at parties or weddings, and how this food is tied to their Indian identity. This research investigates what affluent Hindu-American diasporic foodways embrace and reveal about the upper-class Indian-American identity and their construction of “Indianness” by class, caste, gender, religion, and region.
Devante Dickerson
What Remains at The Table is an experimental video blending memoir, documentary, and cooking show elements. It prioritizes storytelling, letting recipes emerge from personal experience rather than traditional formats. Drawing on New York City’s underground ballroom kiki scene, the project explores how shared meals nurture queer kinship, preserve memory, and create safe communal spaces.
Culinary Acts of Resistance: African Foodways and Their Influence on American Culture
Kasey created a course that examines the historical, cultural, and political significance of African foodways and their enduring influence across the Americas. Through an interdisciplinary approach that integrates history, anthropology, cultural studies, and hands-on culinary practice, the course traces how enslaved Africans carried agricultural knowledge, ingredients, and culinary techniques via the trans-Atlantic slave trade.
Kasey shared, “My main inspirations are my ancestors and my daughter. Black History and Black Stories are rarely told, and if they are, it’s either the trauma of being Black or a sanitized version of events. It is my duty to honor them and teach my kid about herself.”
Investigating Olive Oil Fraud and Food System Trust
Emily wrote a long-form journalism piece on widespread olive oil fraud and the broader social implications of food fraud. Like nearly all forms of food fraud, olive oil fraud is driven by a combination of rising global demand, narrow profit margins, and limited consumer knowledge. In her article, Emily examines the presented industry challenges and explores possible solutions, mainly rooted in technology and policy, while telling stories of historic fraud cases along the way.
Emily shared this advice for future students: "Take a long walk and think about which units were most impactful to you during your time as a student. Write down everything that seems interesting to you, and then pair it down until you have a clear and concise topic. It’s tempting to stay broad, but a honed idea makes for a better and less overwhelming experience. Work with people. Although this is a solo project, collaboration is imperative. Lastly, stay open-minded and curious throughout the entire process. Your argument is bound to change with additional research."