Projects highlight connections among women, food, culture and sustainability
UT San Antonio Special Collections is pleased to announce the recipients of the inaugural Diana Kennedy Foundation Fellowships for Research on Women in Food and Sustainability. Generously funded by the Diana Kennedy Foundation, the fellowship program supports researchers whose work explores the connections among women, foodways, culture and environmental sustainability.
The inaugural call for applications generated more than 20 applications from researchers interested in exploring these themes through UT San Antonio’s distinctive collections. Eight researchers were selected for the 2026–27 fellowship cohort, with four receiving week-long fellowships, three receiving month-long fellowships and one receiving a four-month fellowship. Together, the fellows represent a range of disciplines, perspectives and research interests, demonstrating the breadth of scholarship that can emerge from the Diana Kennedy Collection and the broader Mexican Cookbook Collection.
In addition to the fellowships, Special Collections is announcing the first recipients of the Diana Kennedy Foundation Faculty Teaching in the Archives Grants. Two UT San Antonio faculty members have been awarded $5,000 grants to incorporate Diana Kennedy’s papers and research library into their teaching. While UT San Antonio faculty were not eligible for the research fellowships, the Faculty Teaching in the Archives Grants provided an opportunity for faculty to engage students with the Diana Kennedy Collection and other Special Collections resources in the classroom.
Further information about the 2026–27 fellows can be found below. Learn more about the Diana Kennedy Foundation Fellowship Program
Bonnie Cisneros
Educator, Essayist, Curator, DJ Despeinada, and Editor at Bisnieta Press
La Salsa que Se Sabe
Manny Esquivel
San Antonio ISD
Seeds of Memory: Foodways, Women and The Urban Farm
Dr. Pilar Egüez Guevara
Mount Holyoke University
Traces of Al-Andalus in Mexican Foodways: Women’s Recipe Archives, Ingredients, and Culinary Memory
Vanesa Miseres, PhD
University of Notre Dame
Plant Eaters: The Origins and Evolution of Modern Vegetarianism in Latin America (1900–Present)
Vanessa Moreno Wilcox, PhD
University of California Santa Cruz
Exploring P'urhépecha Foodways and Michoacána Regional Cuisine
Rachel Rabbani
Food Systems San Antonio
Before Plastic Wrap: Material Culture in the Diana Kennedy Collection
Sandra Aguilar Rodriguez, PhD
Moravian University
Cooking Mexico: Race, Class, and Gender after the Mexican Revolution
Luna Vela
Neighborhood Molino
Ven a Moler: Archival Research into Mexican Foodways, Regional Cal Production, and a New Neighborhood Molino in San Antonio
Ali Atabey, PhD
History
HIS 3683 History of Food and Foodways
Lilliana Saldana, PhD
Mexican American Studies
MAS 3423 Mexican American Foodways: Recipes for Justice, Health, and Liberation
