Edible Tales

Dr. Mila Zhu is Associate Professor of Curriculum and Instruction and Coordinator of the EDUC Program at Southeastern Oklahoma State University, where she also serves as Founding Director of the Center for Interconnected Curriculum and Networked Learning (ICoN Learning). Her research centers on Ludic Scholarship, integrating game-based learning, play, and narrative into educational contexts. As series editor of Ludic Scholarship: Games, Learning, and Innovative Pedagogy, she advances work that merges gamification, ludology, and pedagogy. Her book, StrataPlay Methodology: A Lorekeeper's Game Design in Postqualitative Inquiry, anchors the series by modeling multi-layered, game-inflected approaches to research. Building on this foundation, her current projects extend into health-science–informed XR learning design focused on resilience, mental fitness, and ethical decision-making. Before joining Southeastern, Dr. Zhu lived, studied, and taught in Hong Kong, Tokyo, and Shanghai, experiences that inform her global perspective on curriculum and teacher education. A grand winner of the First Asian Youth Piano Competition and an active freelance musician, she integrates musical practice into pedagogy, infusing teacher preparation and curriculum theory with interdisciplinary inquiry across the arts and multicultural education. Dr. Zhu was named to Oklahoma Magazine's 2025 "40 Under 40," recognizing her leadership in shaping the future of education. She is the recipient of Southeastern's 2024 Faculty Senate Recognition Award for Outstanding Research and Scholarly Activity and the 2023 Faculty Senate Recognition Award for Excellence in Teaching. These honors reflect her commitment to bridging rigorous scholarship and compelling storytelling and to partnering with pre-service teachers and underserved communities to advance inclusive, high-impact learning across contexts.Dr. Sarah Morrison (EdD) has been serving in education for over 18 years in public and private environments. She earned her Doctorate in Educational Leadership and Administration from Texas A&M Commerce in December 2020. She has worked in Texas in public schools as an English Literature teacher and is currently an Assistant Professor on tenure track at Southeastern Oklahoma State University. She is a mother of three boys and understands the balance of family and work and how it applies to the profession. She has an interest in helping the community, researching best practices for teachers and administrators to assist staff in the field, and the current technology trends taking place today. Delving into Edible Tales and enhancing the reach for academics to discuss personal stories and lessons on life has been a true joy.

"In treating food as a social semiotic, Zhu and Morrison join a great tradition, alongside the likes of Roland Barthes, of pulling the curtain (or should I say the tablecloth) back on society's relationship with food. Just as Barthes (1961) understood food to be a myth, "a system of communication, a body of images, a protocol of usages, situations, and behavior" (p. 21), this collection of edible tales leaves the reader convinced that food has always been a part of mythologies that create social scripts and concrete metaphors for understanding the abstract concepts of life. But more than metaphors, each contribution metonymically stands in place for a story that predates us all yet invites us to be modern-day characters in the narrative. Historians will remind us that food has facilitated and sustained all revolutions. This book is a revolution for needed radical and fundamental change in higher learning . . . and it is so tasty at the same time." - Dr. Steve Daniel Przymus, The University of Rhode Island"Edible Tales is a feast for the mind. Zhu and Morrison have assembled a remarkable collection that transforms food from mere sustenance into a portal for exploring power, identity, and pedagogy. From Eve's transgressive bite to Salvadoran pupusas as living syllabi, each chapter uncovers how myths and foodways shape who gets to learn, and who gets left hungry. Inventive, rigorous, and deeply human, this book doesn't just belong in higher education; it belongs at every table where stories are taken seriously." - Dr. Dennis L. Rudnick, Metropolitan State University of Denver"Edible Tales is as brilliant as it is rich in flavor, offering something for every academic needing to fill an empty pit in their intellectual stomach. Each chapter feels healing and warm with generous storytelling and sprinkles of feminist pedagogy. You'll start reading with a sense of hope, and you'll finish reading with a sense of deep satisfaction. This book belongs on every foodie academic's bookshelf." - Dr. Jackie Hoermann-Elliott, Texas Woman's University"The volume changes our perception of what food can do. I strongly recommend this publication to those working on visual cultures, aesthetics and philosophies of art, practice and sociality." - Vlad Strukov, Professor of Film and Visual Culture, University of Leeds, and Visiting Professor of Contemporary Art and Curating, Ca-Foscari University, Venice"Edible Tales is a must for any scholar, foodways enthusiast, or educator interested in an impactful study of food, memory, and pedagogy. This book combines equal parts theory, instruction, and folklore in order to entice readers into understanding how food delivers meaning in cultures, classrooms, artistic traditions, and storytelling. For readers interested in applying food studies in their own classes and scholarship, Edible Tales is invaluable as chapters bring to light food-inspired pedagogical practices supported by interdisciplinary research." - Dr. Heidi S. Hakimi-Hood, Midwestern State University"An innovative and diverse collection of twelve food narratives which transform the classroom into a fun and dynamic medium of learning. Each course is playful, yet structured. Inclusion of folklore, memory, and myths ground the stories in shared cultural experiences, inviting others to include their stories, and delve deeper into the meaning of culinary experiences through critical thought and discussion." - Amanda Hill, Dell DeHay Law Library"An essential read that invites scholars, educators, and anyone interested in the transformative power of food stories." - Dr. Julia Haoran Ni, Columbus State University"The idea of Edible Tales is delicious. The prologue invites us to a 12-course meal. The chapters serve not the routine soup, salad, or even an enticing amuse-bouche but instead a variety of pragmatic dishes like 'Plate as Politics' or 'Potions for Classrooms.' The editors have assembled an intriguing cornucopia." - Dr. Joshua Held, Southeastern Oklahoma State University

• Acknowledgments Prologue Edible Tales: An Opening Banquet Chapter 1. Forbidden Fruit and Fateful Feasts: Women, Hunger, and the Poetics of Punishment in Folklore by Monika Hanley Chapter 2. "We Ate That Up!" A Kitchen Table Talk on Food, Pedagogy, and Black Feminist Praxis by Olivia A. McNeill and Esther O. Ohito Chapter 3. Of Moonlight and Memory: Folk Healing, Lunar Recipes, and the Witch's Spoon by Alessandra Pino Chapter 4. Talking With Our Mouths Full: Foodways Narratives and Personal Meanings of Thanksgiving Dinner by Lucy M. Long Chapter 5. Legacy of Culinary Magic on Low Heat: Off-Holidays and the Echo of Food Rituals by Andrea Arce-Trigatti and Dorota Silber-Furman Chapter 6. Culinary Art: From Porcelain to Paper — The Legendary, a Contemporary Legend, and a Beauty and a Beast by Kristin M. McAndrews Chapter 7. Salvi Foodways: Pláticas, Recipes, and Digital Intersections by Elena Foulis and Jennifer Gómez Menjívar Chapter 8. Pedagogical Potions and Classrooms as Zones of Mysticism by Charlene E. Holkenbrink-Monk Chapter 9. Athena's Ambrosial Olive Tree of Knowledge: Cultivating Epic, Green & Epicurean Wisdom through Liquid Gold by Maria Hnaraki Chapter 10. Feasting, Fellowship, and Arthurian Ideals: Dining in Medieval Courtly Literature by Kyah C. Eichholz Chapter 11. Midunu: Commensality, Social Commentary, and Quotidian Aesthetics in Sedem Kingsley Dzade's Paintings by Sela Kodjo Adjei Epilogue Last Call About the Authors Index