Dr. Valeria Campos

Professor & Researcher – Institute of Philosophy at Catholic University of Valparaiso, Chile

Dr. Valeria Campos studies the subject of food and human feeding from a philosophical and anthropological point of view, especially concern with its ethical and political dimensions. Her researches begin with a question about the different meanings and values ​​that humans give to the act of eating and cooking, and how this plays a fundamental role in shaping our experience of the world.

She has also explored more applied fields of gastronomy, teaching cooking students and working with chefs.
Campos believes that food is not just the concrete substance that we eat in a sppecific space/time, but really involves a long and complex chain of production that goes from the genetic heritage enclosed in the seed, through the work of farmers, the means of production, the work of cooks, among other links. She defends a sustainable way of eating that respects the cultural heritage of communities and that is fair to the producers, inclusive and guarantees the right to eating with pleasure.

Dr. Valeria Campos has done preliminary researches on food public policies, with the idea of ​​making a proposal to unify all feeding policies under the idea that eating is a ‘cultural event’.
She is currently leading a reasearch entitled Policies of taste and aesthetics of food. Genesis and structure of philosophical discourses on eating and tasting, supported by CONICYT (National Council of Science and Technology of Chile). In this inquiry, she makes an analysis of the meanings and values that Western culture has given to the sense of taste, in order to obtain critical results that could help us to increase our understanding of the act of eating. The ultimate goal is to vindicate the functions of taste for both personal happiness and for community and even political life.