Spring 2026 Colloquium - Hilary Smith
Department of History, University of Denver
Title: Nutritional Imperialism: How Science Turned Difference into Sickness in China
Abstract: In this talk, I will argue that starting in the early twentieth century, the acolytes of a new discipline called nutrition science began to research Chinese bodies and diets in ways that made them appear to be inherently deficient and even pathological. Seeking to explain the unequal power relations that underlay the imperialist world order, both foreign and some Chinese scientists blamed the Chinese nation’s political weakness and poor health on bad food choices. Although the age of formal empires is past, the traces of what I call nutritional imperialism persist.
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