Bruce Kraig, Ph.D., is professor emeritus in history and humanities at Roosevelt University in Chicago. Kraig has taught courses in history, prehistory, popular culture, American social and cultural history, the history of food, world cultures, political and legal problems of food, and travel and tourism. He has lectured on these subjects in the United States, Europe, Latin America and Australia and has an international reputation as a food historian with special emphasis on the cultural and social significances of food. Kraig has had many speaking engagements worldwide, including a recent in Australia, where he delivered the keynote address at the Australian Symposium on Gastronomy. He has also appeared on a number of national and regional radio shows to discuss food and world culture. He delivered the keynote address to America’s food editors at the 1998 Pillsbury Bake-Off on the topic of the rise of ethnic foods in America. He also gave the keynote address to the 1998 Tablescapes conference at the Columbus, Ohio Museum of Art, entitled “Rude Food, Dining Déclassé.” He has been a regular contributor and speaker at the Oxford, England Symposium on Food and Cookery since 1985.

Kraig recently delivered a paper to the Symposium on Southern Illinois Foodways, entitled “Fried in the Heartland, which has been published; on “Entomophagy” soon to appear in print; and last year, “Riverworld: The Vanished World of Illinois Riverfolk,” also to appear in print. He recently addressed the national meetings of the Fullbright Association Scholars, Les Dames d’Escoffier, the Foodservice Executives Association, and the International Symposium on Culture and Tourism at Sokch’o University in Korea. Kraig was Scholar-in-Residence at the 2007 conference of the International Association of Culinary Professionals in Chicago.