Current & Past Scholars

Photo of three people seated in a communal gathering space on Eden Hall Campus, inside a building with a large skylight and tall plant wall

Rachel Carson Visiting Scholars are experts in six areas central to the mission of Chatham University’s Falk School:

natural systems, including environmental science and natural resource conservation
sustainable built systems, including green buildings and renewable energy
equitable community development
sustainable business practices
food studies
environmentally-inspired writing and communication

Rachel Carson Visiting Scholars take an intersectional approach to exploring the root causes of social and ecological crises; they broaden our understanding of possibilities and pathways towards a regenerative, climate-positive future.

Rachel Carson Scholars are leaders in their fields – whether they come from academia, business, government, or community organizations.

And they are proudly hosted at Chatham University as it stewards the legacy of its powerful alumna and advances a vision of equitable progress within a vital, living Earth.

Exchanging Ideas

Hear from Zygmunt J. B. Plater, inaugural Rachel Carson Visiting Scholar, and Lou Leonard, dean of the Falk School of Sustainability & Environment and Eden Hall Campus on what makes the program remarkable.

Current Scholar: Farha Ternikar

Dr. Farha Ternikar is Professor of Sociology and Director of Gender, Women and Sexuality Studies at Le Moyne College.

She serves on the board of ASFS (Association for the Study of Food and Society) and the WOCLP advisory board for NWSA (National Women's Studies Association).

Her most recent book, Intersectionality and Muslim Women: Beyond Hijab and Halal (2021), explores how food and fashion are modes of analysis for studying Muslim women. She is currently a visiting scholar at Chatham University, where she is working on a new manuscript using a transnational feminist framework to examine Muslim immigrant foodways (OSU Press).

Dr. Ternikar is also working on a co-edited volume with Dr. Stephanie Y. Evans (SUNY Press) which brings together African American, South Asian, and South African women of color who work on food. At LeMoyne College, she teaches Food and Culture, Feminist Theory and Gender and Society.