Sarah Bowen

Sarah Bowen serves as Associate Dean for Research and Engagement in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences and holds a Professorship in Sociology at North Carolina State University. She leads research on food systems, social inequality, and political economy, employing qualitative and community-based methodologies.

Her academic journey includes a B.S. in Agricultural and Biological Engineering from Penn State (2000), followed by an M.S. (2004) and Ph.D. (2008) in Rural Sociology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her work spans multiple countries, including France, Mexico, and Sweden.

Research interests center on food insecurity’s structural causes, intersections of race and class, and sociocultural dimensions of food production. Notable publications include Divided Spirits: Tequila, Mezcal, and the Politics of Production (2015) and Pressure Cooker: Why Home Cooking Won’t Solve Our Problems (2019), which critique societal pressures around cooking and food justice.

Her funded projects address food insecurity’s drivers, including a $3M USDA study on reducing childhood obesity in low-income populations and a NSF-funded investigation into pandemic impacts on food access. Recent work examines racial disparities in food insecurity and maternal health challenges.

Dr. Bowen collaborates with interdisciplinary teams and community organizations, emphasizing participatory methods. She directs research initiatives linking academia with policy interventions to address systemic inequities in food systems and public health.