Dr. Robert T. Valgenti is professor of liberal arts in Applied Food Studies at the Culinary Institute of America (CIA) and brings more than 20 years of experience in higher education. His interdisciplinary expertise spans food studies, the philosophy of food, hermeneutics, and Italian philosophy.
He came to CIA from Bologna Business School in Italy, where he taught Business Ethics and Sustainability. His earlier academic appointments include positions at the University of Torino in Italy, DePaul University in Illinois, and Lebanon Valley College in Pennsylvania, where he chaired the Department of Religion and Philosophy.
Dr. Valgenti has received numerous accolades for his scholarship and teaching: he was a Fulbright Scholar in Turin, Italy, has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst, was named a Campus Sustainability Champion (2015) from the Pennsylvania Environmental Resource Consortium, and was named Instructor of the Year (2018) by the Agriculture, Food, and Human Values Society.
His collaborative research in food studies investigates food decision-making, nutrition perception, dietary habits, and food waste reduction, often through the lens of applied philosophy. His philosophical research includes recent essays on recipes, terroir, artistic improvisation, Italian post-modern philosophy, and the philosophy of comedy. Fluent in both English and Italian, he has also translated numerous scholarly books and articles.
Outside the classroom, Dr. Valgenti is deeply engaged in the food studies community. He currently serves on the editorial collective of Gastronomica: The Journal for Food Studies and is the Co-Chair of the Research and Education Working Group for the Menus of Change® University Research Collaborative. He has also served as a judge for the James Beard Society Awards and regularly contributes to the Gastronomica Podcast.
Dr. Valgenti earned his doctorate (with distinction) and master’s degrees in Philosophy from DePaul University, his Master of Arts in Teaching/English as a Second Language from Fairleigh Dickinson University, and his bachelor’s degree in English, magna cum laude, from the College of the Holy Cross.