Tina Moffat
Professor, Anthropology

My research perspectives are grounded in biocultural and political-economic approaches, with research focuses on maternal-child health and nutrition, food insecurity, immigrant dietary change, and social and cultural dimensions of food and nutrition. I am committed to applied and community-based research, which includes engagement with a variety of governmental and non-governmental organizations in the City of Hamilton. Currently, I am doing school food program research with other committed academics and community activists who are trying to develop a national school food program in Canada. I am a principal investigator on the SSHRC-funded Partnership Engage Grant research project with partner The Coalition for Healthy School Food which aims to understand the preferences, barriers, and facilitators for elementary schools and students to participate in a future national School Food Program. In previous projects I was a co-applicant in a study called “Mothers to Babies” (Sloboda lab), which investigated knowledge translation of the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease (DOHaD) and the social determinants of nutrition security for pregnant people. I was also the principal investigator on a project called “Changing Homes, Changing Food” – funded by the CIHR – that explored dietary change and food insecurity among newcomers to Hamilton, Ontario.
I am the author of Small Bites: Biocultural Dimensions of Children’s Food and Nutrition. University of British Columbia Press (2022).