Elizabeth McQueen
PhD Candidate
Elizabeth McQueen (she/her) is a PhD candidate at UCLA in Theater and Performance Studies with a graduate certificate in Food Studies. Her research examines the contradictions, anxieties, and aesthetics of contemporary performances that utilize food, from transnational performance art to global entertainment venues. Reflecting the collaborative nature of theater, she works with policymakers, nonprofits, chefs, and artists to contextualize and critically engage with food. On campus, she works with the Rothman Family Institute for Food Studies and the Eatwell Pod as part of the Semel Healthy Campus Initiative. She has partnered with Los Angeles County Food Equity Roundtable to develop new approaches to food justice and sustainability initiatives, and is a part-time faculty at The New School where she teaches on food and film.
Research Interests
Environmental Humanities, Food Studies, New Materialism, Nonhuman Performance, Plastic Studies
Education
BA, Theater Design and Comparative History of Ideas, University of Washington
Publications
Baur, Devon and Elizabeth Schiffler. “Annotated Play Lists” in The Methuen Drama Handbook of Gender, edited by. Sean Metzger and Roberta Mock (London: Bloomsbury Methuen, 2024) 491-508
“Microbial Theatricality: Selfmade, Celebrity, and Scales of Hunger” Global Performance Studies, 28, no. 7 (2023)
Callejas, Ileana A., Liana Huang, Marisol Cira, Benjamin Croze, Christine M. Lee, Taylor Cason, Elizabeth Schiffler, et al. “Use of Google Earth Engine for Teaching Coding and Monitoring of Environmental Change: A Case Study among STEM and Non-STEM Students.” Sustainability 15, no. 15 (2023)
Presentations
“Earthly Visitations: Theatrical Remains of Simulacra and Sustainability in Biosphere 2” American Society for Theatre Research, 2023
“At the Edges of Food Studies” Association for the Study of Food and Society, 2023
*Recipient of ASFS Travel Award
“Eating Plastic Parks: Microplastic Performance in Baudrillard’s Disneyland,” American Society for Theatre Research, 2022
“Beyond “Real” Food: Terroir as a Framework for Alimentary Performance,” Twelfth International Conference on Food Studies, 2022.
“Microbial Theatricality: Selfmade and Scales of Hunger,” Performance Studies International, 2022
“Theatricalized Land: Audience Participation in Sustainable Food Entertainment,” Association for Study of Food and Society, 2022
*Awarded Graduate Travel Grant.
“On Terroir: Edible Reenactment and American Gastronomy,” American Society for Theatre Research, 2021
“Edible Pasts Museums of Food and Performing Taste,” Eleventh International Conference on Food Studies, 2021
New Scholar’s Forum, International Federation for Theatre Research, 2021
“Eating Theater: A Brief Survey of Edible Performances during COVID-19,” Just Food Conference, NYU, 2021
Panel: “Food and/as Media,” Just Food Conference, NYU, 2021
“Performed Food Futures: Millennial Consumption Anxieties,” Association of Theater in Higher Education Conference, 2020.
“Between and with Sticky Hands and Beating Wings: Nonhuman Gesture and Future Remains in 5,000 Year Old Honey,” American Society for Theatre Research, 2020
Awards
UC Global Food Initiative Fellowship, 2023-2024
Jane B Semel Healthy Campus Initiative Appreciation & Recognition Award, 2023
Sustainable LA Grand Challenge EDI Fellowship, 2022-2023
UC Global Food Initiative Fellowship, 2022-2023
Emerging Scholar Award: International Conference on Food Studies, 2022
UCLA Graduate Research Mentorship, 2020
