B.A. in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics, University of British Columbia, 2018
M.Sc. in Philosophy and Public Policy, London School of Economics (LSE), United Kingdom, 2020
Growing up in the Dutch countryside, I moved to British Columbia with my family in 2014. Before embarking on my PhD journey, I worked on farms, held jobs in sales, admin, hospitality, and clinical research, and coached in boxing gyms and studied across Australia, the US, Ireland, Canada, and the UK. My academic interest was sparked by a 2015 conversation with my brother about the ethics of eating meat, the main staple in my diet at the time. After weeks of back-and-forth arguing, I came to the realisation that I had no good answer to justify my meat eating other than “it’s normal”‚ and “it tastes great”. Intrigued by how society normalises this behaviour despite its moral, environmental, and health implications, I delved into studying agricultural policymaking and animal cognition across my Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees, before deciding to pursue a PhD on the topic.
My research seeks to understand the underlying factors influencing men’s meat consumption, focusing on why men tend to consume more meat than women. I am supervised by Dr. John L. Oliffe, lead investigator at the Men’s Health Research Program, and Dr. Eric P.H. Li, who researches consumer culture, food consumption, and ethical consumerism. The goal is to not only improve our understanding of the meat-masculinity link and the predictors of men’s willingness to reduce their meat consumption, but also their perceptions of and attitudes towards emerging meat alternatives such as plant-based and cultivated meats.
This work builds upon existing literature on gendered health habits, which shows that men engage in more unhealthy consumption habits than women, while behaviours such as healthy eating and dieting tend to be regarded as feminine. Through a public health lens, I examine the impact of these perceptions and behaviours on men’s health and explore public initiatives to address them, while from a marketing standpoint I investigate how meat products are presented and marketed to men, highlighting the role of advertising in shaping consumption patterns and beliefs.
By adopting an interdisciplinary approach, my research looks to contribute to a holistic understanding of men’s meat consumption behaviours and to inform strategies for promoting healthier dietary habits among men.
R. Howard Webster Foundation Fellowship
Faculty of Graduate Studies Graduate Award, University of British Columbia
President’s Academic Excellence Initiative PhD Award, University of British Columbia
meat consumption; masculinities; marketing; prosocial consumption;