Dr. Maureen Costura is a professor of Food Studies and Liberal Arts at CIA New York, where she brings an interdisciplinary lens to the study of food and culture. Her teaching portfolio includes courses such as The Archaeology of Food, Ancient Foods in the Modern World: Latin America, Research Methods for Applied Food Studies, Introduction to Gastronomy, Project in Applied Food Studies, and Global Cuisines and Cultures: France, Greece, and Peru.
Through these courses, Dr. Costura introduces students to the social, archaeological, and cultural forces that have foodways across time and place. Her classes explore the evolution of traditional foods in society and how these legacies are interpreted and adapted in today’s professional kitchens. As part of the Global Cuisines and Cultures curriculum, she has led students on experiential learning trips to France, Greece, and Peru, where they engage directly with farms, restaurants, and regional producers. Archaeology of Food and Ancient Foods of Latin America look at the disparate ways that cultures have constructed their relationships with food and agriculture, and the long-term impacts of food culture on societal trajectories.
Before joining CIA’s faculty in 2011, Dr. Costura completed her graduate studies in Anthropology and Archaeology at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY. She received her MA in Archaeology in 2005 and her PhD in Anthropology in 2011. She also holds a Bachelor of Arts in History from Dickinson College in Carlisle, PA.
An accomplished archaeologist, Dr. Costura has served as excavation director and crew chief at historic sites in New York, Pennsylvania, India, Barbados, and St. Vincent, and as a crew member on digs in Indiana, New Jersey, and Honduras. She has also worked as an archival specialist and curatorial assistant at the Sampson World War II Veterans Museum in Romulus, NY.
Outside the classroom, she enjoys reading, writing, hiking with her family and dogs, quilting, gardening and traveling.