F. Xavier Medina

Dr.

Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC)

Spain

Professional Summary

Dr. F. Xavier Medina is an esteemed social anthropologist currently serving as Director of the Department of the Food Systems, Culture and Society in the Health Sciences Department at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC) in Barcelona. He also serves as President and Chair of the European section of the International Commission on the Anthropology of Food and Nutrition (ICAF), and is the current Director of the UNESCO Chair on "Food, Culture and Development." Dr. Medina has a long history of leading research and education in Food and Culture, and has done so for over 20 years. He previously served as President of the Spanish Section of ICAF (ICAF Spain) from 2000 to 2006. In addition, Dr. Medina was also a member of the team drafting the candidature of the Mediterranean Diet as Intangible Cultural Heritage (2007-2010); the proposal was adopted by UNESCO in November 2010. He is also a member of the team promoting the candidature of Catalan Cuisine as Intangible Cultural Heritage. Originally, Dr. Medina was drawn to the field of social anthropology during his university studies at the end of 1980's and gravitated towards the cultural side of things. He received a PhD in Social Anthropology from University of Barcelona in 2000. As part of his responsibilities, Dr. Medina lectures, teaches, directs programs, and conducts significant research. Going forward, he would like to focus on continuing research more on food and cultural heritage, nature and diet, and health sciences, while teaching social and cultural anthropology. He would like to network and conduct research with people from different disciplines and also gain more exposure for his books. Indeed, Dr. Medina conducts a fair amount of public speaking and writes extensively. His first book was published in the mid-90's, and in 2013 he also has the publication Corpus del Patrimonio Culinario RBA y Fundación Instituto Catalán de la Cocina y de la Cultura Gastronómica (Corpus Culinary Heritage RBA and Catalan Institute Foundation Kitchen and Food Culture). In his spare time, Dr. Medina enjoys travel and international cuisine.

Skills

Specialization

Social Anthropology; Food Systems; Higher Education; E-Learning; Educational Technology