Gloria Fall is a PhD student in sociocultural anthropology. Her research focuses on how race, gender, class, and body size/ability inform the eating disorder experience. Her project is situated outside of clinical boundaries and seeks to understand how individuals find support and care beyond stringent, racialized diagnostic categories and exclusionary treatment protocols. More broadly, Gloria is interested in how subjective illness experiences are informed by identity and vice versa, and she engages with various theories/lenses including embodiment theory, queer of color critique, critical food studies, and experimental ethnographic methods.
Gloria is also a Graduate Student Affiliate with WashU’s Program in Public Scholarship, and the Center for the Study of Race, Ethnicity and Equity.
Prior to joining the WashU anthropology department, Gloria spent many years in food service, working in a variety of roles from sommelier to fishmonger to most things in between. She is happy to talk to prospective students about transitioning into academia from non-research/non-academic backgrounds.