ENCORE: Culinary Colonialism and Caribbean Cookbooks with Keja Valens

Dive into the history of Caribbean cookbooks with Keja Valens, author of Culinary Colonialism, Caribbean Cookbooks, and Recipes for National Independence. In this encore episode Keja Valens, Professor of English at Salem State University and author of 'Culinary Colonialism, Caribbean Cookbooks, and Recipes for National Independence' discusses creolization, early cookbook authors, and the cultural significance of historical cookbooks in the Caribbean. Keja shares insights from her academic research highlighting how colonialism shaped and transformed Caribbean food and culture. About Keja Valens Keja Valens is Professor of English at Salem State University. She teaches and writes on Caribbean literatures, literatures of the Americas, queer theory, and food writing. Her recent publications include Culinary Colonialism, Caribbean Cookbooks, and Recipes for National Independence (Rutgers UP, 2024), “Home Cooking: Diaspora and Transnational Caribbean Cookbooks” (Becoming Home: Diaspora and the Anglophone Transnational, Vernon Press, 2021), “Caribbean Ecopoetics: The Categorial Imperative and Indifference in the Caribbean Environment” (Caribbean Literature in Transition, 1970-2020, Cambridge UP, 2020). She is also author of Desire between Women in Caribbean Literature (Palgrave, 2013). When she is not teaching or writing, she gardens, cooks, and eats. Connect with her: https://directory.salemstate.edu/profile/keja.valens