Meet Professor Michelle Szabo (Environmental Studies and Sociology)

Photo: Matthew Devine

Michelle Szabo is a Professor of Environmental Studies and Sociology in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at Sheridan. She received her Ph.D in Environmental Studies from York University and was subsequently a SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellow in Sociology at the University of Toronto. She has published and taught on masculinities and cooking, consumer culture and sustainability, gender theory, the sociology of food, and issues of health, sustainability and social justice in the food system. She is the head co-editor of the forthcoming book Food, Masculinities and Home: Interdisciplinary Perspectives (Bloomsbury 2016), which brings together scholarly work from around the world. In 2014, she was commissioned by Ryerson University to conduct comparative research on sustainable campus food practices in North America, which contributed to the recent overhaul of Ryerson food services. Outside of academia, Michelle has been a member of the Toronto community food co-op, Karma Co-op, since 2004. She is a long time dancer, cyclist and lover of stand-up comedy and a more recent podcast enthusiast.

Michelle Szabo answers Alchemy’s Proust Questionnaire:

Favourite virtue: Authenticity.

Most overrated virtue: Perfection.

Most important lesson I learned in kindergarten: Everyone should take time in the day to dance.

My idea of perfect happiness: A path through an ancient redwood forest and all the time in the world.

My idea of complete misery: A life without real connection, risk and vulnerability.

In my opinion the secret to success is: Getting out of your own way.

My favourite word: Fierce.

If I weren’t a teacher I’d be: A psychologist or neuroscientist.

Language I’d love to be able to speak: Latin.

My favourite food/meal: Sushi right off the boat on Tokyo harbour.

My favourite singer/musician and song: Favourite is hard. Imogen Heap’s “The Moment I Said It” is definitely high on the list.