Claire Bunschoten, Ph.D.
Vanilla Extract(ions): Thinking with the Vanilla Orchid
From lattes to scented candles, vanilla flavors contemporary life in the United States. Although vanilla appears familiar, ordinary, even boring, its production is the result of extraordinary human infrastructure that isn’t sustainable and needs to be radically reimagined.
This talk analyzes a few key moments of technological innovation in vanilla’s long history, from the 19th-century invention of the vanilla orchid’s “marriage,” to the 21st-century genetic engineering of e. coli bacteria to synthesize “natural” vanillin from plastic bottle waste. These scientific interventions attempt to solve the same problem: the vanilla orchid’s resistance to capitalist logics of efficiency.
Dr. Bunschoten researches American food history in relation to systems of power. She recently completed her Ph.D. in American Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her dissertation, and future book project, “Extracts, Essences, and Political Effects: How Vanilla Shapes American Life,” examines vanilla as a flavor, fragrance, and euphemism for race to reveal how it contests and reifies boundaries of identity in the United States.
