This book signing immediately follows the Environmental Studies Symposium keynote address and food tasting by Christopher Carter

Book Signing:

Christopher Carter, The Spirit of Soul Food (University of Illinois Press, December 2021)

About the Book: Soul food has played a critical role in preserving Black history, community, and culinary genius. It is also a response to–and marker of–centuries of food injustice. Given the harm that our food production system inflicts upon Black people, what should soul food look like today?

Christopher Carter’s answer to that question merges a history of Black American foodways with a Christian ethical response to food injustice. Carter reveals how racism and colonialism have long steered the development of US food policy. The very food we grow, distribute, and eat disproportionately harms Black people specifically and people of color among the global poor in general. Carter reflects on how people of color can eat in a way that reflects their cultural identities while remaining true to the principles of compassion, love, justice, and solidarity with the marginalized.

Both a timely mediation and a call to action, The Spirit of Soul Food places today’s Black foodways at the crossroads of food justice and Christian practice.

Christopher Carter, The Spirit of Soul Food (University of Illinois Press, December 2021) “I’ve never read a book like this before! Part history book, part cookbook, part call-to-action and resource for spiritual formation. The Spirit of Soul Food is suited for a variety of audiences ready for the timely challenge of inviting a deeper integration of our ethics, actions, and daily bread.” —Rev. Dr. Heber Brown III, Pleasant Hope Baptist Church

“Carter’s excellent book breaks important new ground at the crucial nexus of race, religion, food, animals, and the environment. It is essential reading for anyone seeking to address this cutting-edge territory, which is crucial for the futures of human and more-than-human life.”  —David L. Clough, University of Chester

About the Author:

Rev. Dr. Christopher Carter’s research, teaching, and activist interests are in Black, Womanist, and Environmental ethics, with a particular focus on race, food, and nonhuman animals. His publications include The Spirit of Soul Food (University of Illinois Press, December 2021), “Blood in the Soil: The Racial, Racist, and Religious Dimensions of Environmentalism” in The Bloomsbury Handbook on Religion and Nature (Bloomsbury, 2018) and the co-edited volume The Future of Meat Without Animals (Rowman & Littlefield, 2016). In them, he explores the intersectional oppressions experienced by people of color, non-human nature, and animals. Currently he is an Associate Professor of Theology at the University of San Diego, Lead Pastor of The Loft at Westwood United Methodist Church, and he is also on the board of directors of Farm Forward, an anti-factory farming non-profit.