Insects&Wine is a not-for-profit, collaborative venture. Our sole aim is to enhance everyone’s enjoyment of insects and wine! Here’s a bit about our current team:
Charlotte the Elder has been working on insects as food since 2008, when her supervisor and mentor advised her to follow the example of wild chimpanzees and try a weaver ant fresh from the tree. She has done fieldwork among people for whom insects are a traditional food in DR Congo, Japan, Zimbabwe, Mexico and Burkina Faso. For more about her academic work, check out her website and blog. Her favourite edible insects are hornets and her favourite wine is Austrian orange wine, but she’s not yet been fortunate enough to try the two together.
Chris is a social anthropologist who is a specialist in political violence, genocide, Mongolia, and wine. It’s probably best not to ask what these topics have in common, and just focus on the last one, but if you’re keen to read more about the first three, see his personal website. He holds a Distinction in the WSET Level 3 Advanced wine certification. Somehow he’s been sidetracked from modern-day epicurean food and wine pairings to less conventional – but far more exciting – combinations of edible insects and natural wines. He is also known as the Less Sociable Half of the research project Anthroenology.
Charlotte the Younger: Charlotte started working on edible insects with the ‘Elder’ 2yrs ago in Burkina Faso. She is currently an MPhil student in Epidemiology and will start her PhD in October, looking at malnutrition and uncultivated food use in developing countries. For more about her academic work, check out her website.
Dani: Also known as ‘MT.’ You’ll have to ask her why. Dani is currently studying biological anthropology at Cambridge and is a lover of wine and wasp larvae.
If you’ve got any questions, or something you’d like to contribute, please get in touch!