The other chapter I am working on looks at the problem of style and identity. I am also working on the idea of comfort food, or how west coast society finds authenticity through food that we literally consume. This involves a close look at where restaurants are located in cities and how menus are constructed. Examples of the types of questions I am asking are, why in Seattle is expresso considered more authentic than drip coffee in coffee houses, what authenticity is gained by drinking beer brewed on cite in microbreweries in Portland, and how types of food, such as Italian, or Southern become familiar. I am looking at the particular reasons why we consume what we consume.
Communications asks questions about our daily experience.
We are continually bombarded with forms, whether they be literature, architecture, comfort food, et cetera., which attempt to influence how we perceive ourselves, and the way we perform our identities by the ways we dress, speak, and use body language. Identity is a cultural construct arising from the messages society gives as to what it means to be a man or woman, and ethnicity within a society. It is imperative to recognize how one is being persuaded to perform an identity through these forms, for once one realizes how these forms tie us together and structure who we are, this enables us to ask better questions about who we are and to create a better life. Although my discipline is Communications, my scholarship fits into the broader category of cultural studies which asks nontraditional questions about power, identity, gender, ethnicity, and race. I am interested in how these forms persuade us to find an identity within culture and position us in society.