Alice L. McLean

My foray into food and the imagination began as a child, when I conceptualized an imaginary friend, Pear, as a trusted companion. Fast forward a few decades, and I live with a pear tree outside my kitchen window. She brings delight each spring as her white petals unfurl, and she bears ambrosial fruit throughout the summer. Serving as an imaginary friend and as a gift from nature, Pear has been part of my lifelong exploration of food—as metaphor, as muse, and as an endless source of pleasure and commensality. I have written about food since my early twenties, when a former colleague asked me to helm the food section of an upstart weekly he was founding. After serving as the paper's inaugural dining critic, I ventured west to California, where I channelled my passions for food and for literature into a PhD in literary food studies. Doctorate in hand, I was awarded a four-year fellowship by a women's college in Virginia, where I taught honors seminars and led the gender studies program. Eventually, I made my way back west to become a founding faculty member of California's first Master of Arts in Food Studies Program. During my journeys across the country, I've authored three books and assorted essays. I'm currently at work on my fourth book, which uses food as a lens through which to examine America's relationship with nature, from pre-contact up through the Rights of Nature movement. Pear will inevitably infuse the project, serving as a delicious reminder of nature's capacity to nourish and inspire.

Teaching Experience

Editorial Experience

I currently work as an academic developmental editor, helping book and essay authors navigate the peer review process. Please visit Idea into Word should you wish to learn more about my services. I have peer reviewed manuscripts and books for Columbia, MIT, Johns Hopkins, University of California, University of Nebraska, University of Hawai'i, and Routledge.

Master of Arts in Food Studies Program, University of the Pacific, San Francisco, CA (2015–2020) Lecturer, Thesis Director, and Faculty Advisor

Taught Food Writing, Thesis Development, Literature, Critical Food Studies, and American Culinary History, 1500–2000

Sweet Briar College, Sweet Briar, VA (2005–2009) Honors Fellow & Faculty Lead of the Gender Studies Program

Served as faculty mentor and primary instructor of the Honors Program.

Served as faculty advisor, curriculum lead, and primary instructor of the Gender Studies Program.

English Department, University of California, Davis (2000-2005) Lecturer & Associate in English

Taught Literary Analysis, Expository Writing, Writing in the Profession: Journalism, and Advanced Composition