Presented in partnership with Vanderbilt University’s Division of Government and Community Relations and the Vice Provost’s Office of Arts, Libraries, and Global Engagement
In partnership with Vanderbilt University’s Division of Government and Community Relations and the Vice Provost’s Office of Arts, Libraries, and Global Engagement, the Frist Art Museum presents “Food for Thought,” a three-part series of interdisciplinary conversations over lunch or happy hour inspired by our exhibitions. These discussions will be presented by Vanderbilt faculty and staff, Frist Art Museum staff, and other members of the Nashville community.
This discussion, moderated by Frist Art Museum Executive Director Seth Feman, is inspired by the exhibitions Farm to Table: Art, Food, and Identity in the Age of Impressionism, Tennessee Harvest, 1870s–1920s, and Enough to Go Around: Food and Community in Nashville, and will highlight those working for food justice in our community.
Panelists
Kelly L. Haws is the Anne Marie and Thomas B. Walker, Jr. Professor of Marketing at the Owen Graduate School of Management at Vanderbilt University. Her research interests focus on consumer behavior and consumer well-being, particularly related to self-control, health, sustainability, and food decision-making. She received the Early Career Award from the Association of Consumer Research in 2013 and the Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award for research productivity from the Society for Consumer Psychology in 2025. She was named an MSI Young Scholar in 2009 and an MSI Scholar in 2018 for her contributions to the field of marketing. She has served as an associate editor for multiple top-tier journals, and she is currently a co-editor of the Journal of Marketing.
Alice Randall is a New York Times best-selling novelist, award-winning songwriter, educator, food activist, and memoirist. A graduate of Harvard University, she holds an honorary doctorate from Fisk University, is a writer-in-residence and on faculty at Vanderbilt University, and credits Detroit’s Ziggy Johnson School of the Theater with being the most influential educational institution in her life. She is widely recognized as being one of the most significant voices in twenty-first-century African American fiction and is the only Black woman in history to write both a number one country song and an ACM video of the year.
Dr. C.J. Sentell is the CEO of The Nashville Food Project. Before joining the Food Project, C.J. served as the executive director of the FORGE Fund, a community development financial institution (CDFI) that provides farmers and rural entrepreneurs with access to capital and business development services. Prior to that, C.J. was the curriculum director at Brightwater: A Center for the Study of Food—the first culinary school in the U.S. based on a food systems approach—and was the founding Operations Manager of the Grass Roots Farmers’ Cooperative. With more than fifteen years of experience as a farmer and community food advocate, C.J. has studied food systems across the world, including for his doctoral dissertation on the relationship between freedom and food, and slavery and agriculture. His scholarly interests include the social determinants of health, biopolitics, race, and democracy, and environmental ethics. An alumnus of Hendrix College, C.J. holds a master’s degree in the history and philosophy of science and medicine from Cambridge University and a doctorate in philosophy from Vanderbilt University. He currently serves on the boards of the Nashville Food Co-op and the Davidson County Soil and Water Conservation District, and is a Food Policy Advisor with the Community Mapping Center at Meharry Medical College.
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