2026 International Lecture Series / ASHLEY ROSE YOUNG, Ph.D.

Savoring History: Stories from the American Table
Ashley Rose Young, Ph.D., Historian and Smithsonian Research Associate

As we prepare to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the United States, there is still much to be learned, appreciated, and examined about the founding and development of the country.

Food history is a surprisingly effective tool to unearth this knowledge, as American culinary cultures, past and present, reveal insights about our nation’s history. Whether analyzing early American politics through what George Washington served at his dinner parties, the evolution of New Orleans’ famed Creole culture through dishes like gumbo and jambalaya, or the popularization of frozen TV dinners and the rise of suburban neighborhoods after WWII, culinary cultures have important stories to tell about American life. Dr. Ashley Rose Young explores these connections, revealing how food provides a unique and compelling lens into the nation’s past.

Dr. Ashley Rose Young is a historian, museum curator, and writer whose work has appeared widely, including in The New York Times and The Washington Post. She is a Smithsonian Research Associate and was formerly the Historian of the Smithsonian Food History Project at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History (2017-2024) where she co-curated the museum’s keystone food history exhibition, FOOD: Transforming the American Table.

She was also the host of Cooking Up History, the museum’s cooking demonstration series where she shared the stage with celebrated chefs, cookbook authors, and community leaders. Her first book, Nourishing Networks: The Public Culture of Food in New Orleans, will be published in the fall of 2025 by Oxford University Press.

Dr. Young earned a PhD and MA in History from Duke University, a BA in History from Yale College, and was a visiting scholar at Oxford University.