Craig A. Hassel

Ph.D., Associate Professor & Extension Nutritionist Department of Food Science and Nutrition 164 FScN Phone: (612) 624-7288 Fax: (612) 625-5272 chassel@umn.edu

Research

I explore issues of food and health with cultural communities holding knowledge that does not correspond with Western science perspectives. This work pivots the culture/science relationship as it repositions scientific inquiry alongside ancient, ancestral and experiential understandings of food and health. The goal is to create models of cross-cultural engagement that reform scientific inquiry to be more respectful of diverse ways of knowing. Examples include: 1) Using principles of Chinese medical theory and contemporary sensory analysis to explicate medicinal herb quality; 2) Using indigenous heirloom crop varieties, including wild rice, to explore Indigenous and biomedical worldviews; 3) Faculty development and cross-cultural symposia that embrace multiple worldview orientations.

Collaborations

• The University of Minnesota Center for Spirituality & Healing
• The Inter-institutional Consortium for Indigenous Knowledge at Penn State University
• The Cultural Wellness Center in Minneapolis and St. Paul
• The White Earth Tribal Council

Resident and Outreach Teaching

• AGRI 1000H: Native American Perspectives on Land Use and the Environment
• CSPH 5111 Ways of Thinking About Health
• AGRI 1902H: Ways of Knowing and Science

Selected Scholarship 

Hassel, C. (2007) Can cross-cultural engagement improve the land-grant university? J of Extension. 45(5) 

Hassel, C. (2006) Woodlands Wisdom: A Nutrition Program Interfacing Indigenous and Biomedical Epistemologies. Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior 38(2):114-120.

Hassel, C.A., Hafner, C.A., Soberg, R. and Adelmann, J. (2006) Medicinal Herb Quality in the United States: Bridging Perspectives with Chinese Medical Theory, in: /Eating and Healing/, A. Pieroni, ed., New York, Haworth Press.

Hassel, C. (2005) The craft of cross-cultural engagement. J of Extension 43(6) #6FEA1. 

Garrido DJ, Auger S, Rendon S, Hassel CA. (2005) Nutrition through another lens: Indigenous knowledge in nutrition education. J Nutr Ed Behav 37(Suppl 1):S35.

Harala, K, Smith, C, Hassel, C, and Gailfus, P. (2005) New Moccasins: Articulating Research Agendas through Interviews with Faculty and Staff at Native and Non-Native Academic Institutions. Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior 37(2):67-76.

Hafner, C.A., Hassel, C.A., Soberg, R., Adelmann, J., Fetch, C. (2004) Toward bridging perspectives with integrity. Reg. Chinese Herb. Med. J. 3(3):4-12.

Leadership/Service

• Minnesota Extension Service Nutrition & Health - specialist support to Extension Educators focusing on diet/health and vital aging programming
• Woodlands Wisdom Nutrition Project – work closely with a confederacy of six Tribal Colleges and the University of Minnesota to address chronic health issues in Native American communities through culturally-based food and nutrition programs of teaching, research and community connections
• Families That Work Outreach – work with urban and rural American Indian Communities to assist with developing nutrition education approaches that honor traditional foods and its relationship to land and human health.
• Medicinal Herb Network – work closely with this network, founded as partnership effort of small-scale medicinal herb growers and practitioners of Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) to communicate concepts of medicinal herb quality and to encourage locally grown, high quality medicinal herbs.

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