Library fellow researches meat industry

Anna Williams, former assistant professor in the Communication department at the Eastern Mediterranean University in Cyprus, served in September as the Madden Library’s first research fellow.

The $2,000 fellowship, funded by Dr. Roger K. Larson of Fresno, supported Williams’ extended research visit using the Donald G. Larson Collection on International Exhibitions and Fairs, 1851-1940, in the Special Collections Library.

She studied the changing depiction of the U.S. meat industry in international expositions and fairs, using the Larson Collection.

This research is part of the emerging field of “Animal Studies,” which examines the cultural construction of animals in the broadest sense, including the connections between the treatment and depiction of animals, and the political consequences of these representations.

Williams’ own work examines the representation of animals in the popular construction of food and food production. Within this field it is widely assumed that the commodifying effects of industrialization have thoroughly effaced the connection between meat and the living animals from which it is derived. However, as recent advertisements for Carl’s Jr. ® and Real California Cheese ® demonstrate, the argument that the food industry thoroughly disowns its connection to animals is not wholly accurate.

Her research will examine this issue by tracking the ways in which the industry chose to depict itself from 1851 to 1940. Williams is currently working on a manuscript that examines the impact of the development of industrial meat production on the representation of cattle and pigs in the 19th century Midwest.

She is also researching the changing practice and depiction of industrial meat production in the 20th century, focusing on standards of “humane”’ production, and the impact of recent criticism of the industry, prompted by the outbreak of BSE (Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy or what the press had dubbed “mad cow” disease) in Britain and E. coli in the Pacific Northwest. Her study of the Larson Collection will contribute to both of these projects.

A native of Swansea, South Wales, Williams has a Ph.D. in Visual and Cultural Studies from the University of Rochester and a B.A. in Film Studies with History and Theory of Art from the University of Kent at Canterbury. She specializes in Visual Culture, Media Studies and Critical Theory and has taught at the University of California, San Diego and at Washington State University, Pullman.