05/28/2008

Rebecca Som Castellano Awarded the Rural Sociology Master's Thesis and Dissertation Research Award

Rebecca Som Castellano, a graduate student in UK's Department of Sociology, will receive a grant of $3,125 from the Rural Sociological Society to aid her thesis research.

"It is a great honor to have been awarded the Rural Sociology Master's Thesis and Dissertation Research Award. This grant enables me to accomplish my master’s thesis research, which has the working title “School Lunch Programs and the American Diet: Exploring a Contested Food Terrain,” Som Castellano said.

"The goals of my thesis and dissertation research are to develop a sociological understanding of the impacts of the globalization of agriculture and food through an analysis of school lunch programs. The objectives of the master’s phase of my research are to examine the social actors involved in the construction and implementation of school lunch programs, in order to understand how food knowledge and dietary habits are being shaped by the school lunch programs in the United States."