Mark Anthony Arceño

Mark Anthony Arceño is the Academic Program Coordinator in the Department of Comparative Studies at The Ohio State University's College of Arts and Sciences, where he also teaches COMPSTD 4420: Cultural Food Systems and Sustainability. He recently completed his Ph.D. in Anthropology at Ohio State in 2021, with a dissertation focused on terroir and wine production in Ohio and Alsace, France. His academic journey includes an M.A. in Anthropology from Ohio State (2016) and a B.A. in French and International Studies from Albion College.

Dr. Arceño's research centers on the anthropology of food, examining how foods and drinks of geographic origin help individuals articulate sociocultural and political senses of self and belonging during times of change. His work employs the French concept of terroir as a framework to investigate social-ecological systems of place-based wine production, with particular attention to climate change adaptation and multispecies relations. His methodological approach combines multisensory ethnography with multispecies perspectives, drawing on eighteen months of fieldwork in both Ohio and Alsace.

His scholarly contributions demonstrate a consistent focus on the intersections of food, place, and identity, with publications spanning anthropology, environmental studies, and food systems. His work reveals how winegrowers navigate ecological transformations while maintaining cultural connections to their landscapes, often through what he describes as the 'reverse engineering' of terroir in changing contexts.

• Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation Award in Anthropology, Ohio State University (2021)
• Robert M. Netting Student Paper Prize/Fellowship, Culture & Agriculture (2019)
• Humanities and Social Sciences 'Make Our Planet Great Again' Chateaubriand Fellow (2019)
• Elizabeth A. Salt Anthropology Travel Award (2018)
• Larsen Research and Travel Award (2017)

As Academic Program Coordinator, Dr. Arceño advises the Comparative Studies Graduate Student Group and serves as Lecture Series Team Leader for the Anthropology Public Outreach Program. He has secured multiple research grants supporting his fieldwork in France and Ohio, including funding from the Cultural Services of the Embassy of France. His community engagement extends to his role as Chapter Leader of Slow Food Columbus, where he connects academic research with local food movements. He has organized multiple speaker series on food systems, equity, and sustainability, demonstrating his commitment to public scholarship and community partnerships.