Free Talk on Southwest Cultural Delicacies

"Flavors Without Borders" is the third of the UA Provost Lecture Series, sponsored by the Well University Partnership.

Gary Paul Nabhan, an Arab-American writer, lecturer, food and farming advocate, rural folklorist and conservationist, will share insights on regional desert foods from the Southwest on Wednesday, March 25 from noon to 1 p.m.

Nabhan's talk is free and open to the public and will be held at the Gallagher Theater at The University of Arizona's Student Union Memorial Center.

The talk, "Flavors Without Borders," is the third of the UA Provost Lecture Series, which is sponsored by the UA Well University Partnership.

The Well University Partnership is comprised of various campus units, including Campus Health, Arizona Health Sciences Center, Campus Recreation, Nutrition Sciences, Public Health and Worksite Wellness.

The partnership is committed to creating, supporting and sustaining individual health and well-being, developing responsive and productive work environments and fostering a supportive wellness culture within and outside the UA community.

"Sustainability and food issues are hot topics nationally and we here at the University have an expert not only in conservation but also in the cultural aspects of food," said David Salafsky, interim director of the Health Promotion and Preventive Services unit at the UA Campus Health Service.  

Nabhan is a research social scientist with the UA's Southwest Center and teaches in the department of geography and regional development. His work has long been rooted in the U.S./Mexico borderlands.

Nabhan is the author of 13 books including, "Why Some Like It Hot: Food, Genes and Cultural Diversity," "Coming Home to Eat: The Pleasures and Politics of Local Foods" and most recently "Where Our Food Comes From: Retracing Nikolay Vavilov's Quest to End Famine."

Nabhan is the co-founder of Tucson-based Native Seeds/SEARCH and an early advocate of the slow food movement.

For his literary, grassroots conservation and community-based ethnobiology projects, Nabhan has been honored with the John Burroughs Medal for Nature Writing, a MacArthur "genius" award, a Pew Fellowship in Conservation and Environment, a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Society for Conservation Biology and a Quivira Coalition award for excellence in science.

Salafsky said the Well University Partnership hopes to continue to host health and wellness speakers in the coming semesters and last fall during its second lecture series, the group learned that the community was interested in learning about food.

"Though campus employees are our focus, Well U works with groups outside the University in keeping with our land-grant mission to promote health and wellness," said Salafsky. "We are excited about having employees, students and members of the community come and hear the talk and then provide us with ideas for future events."