معرفی
Irina D. Mihalache is an Associate Professor and Program Director of the Master of Museum Studies at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Information. She holds a PhD in Communication and Cultural Policy from Carleton University, alongside degrees from Randolph College and New York University. Her research focuses on understanding museums’ roles in political and cultural contexts, with a particular emphasis on food’s intersection with museum practices. She explores topics such as culinary infrastructure, women’s contributions to museum spaces, and the material culture of food.
Her academic journey includes a postdoctoral fellowship at the American University of Paris and teaching courses like Curatorial Practice and Global Cultures and Museums. Mihalache has supervised PhD candidates Geneva Gillis, Nicole Ritchie, and Camille-Mary Sharp. She has secured grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) for projects such as Cooking under a Picasso: Women’s Committees and Culinary Infrastructures in Art Museums and Interpretation as Field: Museum Professionals Between Ideology and Practice.
Her work often bridges food studies and museum studies, analyzing menus, cookbooks, and institutional dining histories. She co-edited Food and Museums (2016) and contributed to the Bloomsbury Handbook of Food and Material Cultures (2023). Projects include curating exhibitions on culinary ephemera and examining how food mediates cultural narratives in museums.
