Priya Fielding-Singh
Priya Fielding-Singh
Director of Policy and Programs, Global Food Institute
Full-Time Affiliated Faculty
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Priya Fielding-Singh
Priya Fielding-Singh, PhD is a sociologist and ethnographer whose work examines how social inequality shapes food, health, and family life in America. She serves as the Director of Policy and Programs at the Global Food Institute at the George Washington University and as Affiliate Faculty in the Department of Sociology.
Her research sits at the intersection of health, inequality and family studies, with expertise in food and nutrition equity, maternal and child health, and the social determinants of wellbeing. Drawing on mixed methods including in-depth ethnographic fieldwork, her work has been supported by the NIH, National Cancer Institute, and Russell Sage Foundation, and published in journals such as Social Science & Medicine, Journal of Marriage and Family, Sociological Science, Socius, and Sociological Perspectives.
Her first book, How the Other Half Eats: The Untold Story of Food and Inequality, draws on ethnographic fieldwork with families across the socioeconomic spectrum in the San Francisco Bay Area to offer a structural account of dietary disparities in America. It has been featured in outlets such as The Washington Post, The New York Times, NPR, and The Guardian.
Dr. Fielding-Singh earned her PhD in Sociology from Stanford University and completed a postdoctoral fellowship as an NIH Scholar in Cardiovascular Disease Prevention at the Stanford School of Medicine. She previously served as an Assistant Professor at the University of Utah and currently sits on the Board of Directors for Hunger Free America.
Manali Kulkarni+* and Priya Fielding-Singh*. 2025. “Institutional Betrayal and Mothers’ Postpartum Mental Health Outcomes.” Journal of Midwifery and Women’s Health. (+student co-author; *equal authorship)
Michele Patel, Matthew Landry, Astrid Zamora. Priya Fielding-Singh, Abby King, and Christopher Gardner. 2024. “Pretreatment predictors of weight loss in a 12-month behavioral obesity treatment: a signal detection analysis of DIETFITS.” Obesity.
Priya Fielding-Singh*, Elizabeth Talbert*, Lisa Hummel* and Lauren Griffin*. Forthcoming 2024. “Caregiving through a crisis: Mothers’ experiences navigating caregiving, parenting and work during the COVID-19 pandemic.” Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences. (*equal authorship)
Matthew Landry, Catherine Ward, Kristen Cunanan, Priya Fielding-Singh, Anthony Crimarco, and Christopher Gardner. 2024. “Switching Diets After 6-months Does Not Result in Renewed Weight Loss: A Secondary Analysis of a 12-month Crossover Randomized Trial.” Scientific Reports.
Priya Fielding-Singh* and Jessie Fan*. 2023. “Dietary patterns among US children: a cluster analysis.” Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. (*equal authorship)
Amelia Dmowska+*, Priya Fielding-Singh*, Jodi Halpern and Ndola Prata. 2023. “The Intersection of Traumatic Childbirth and Obstetric Racism.” Birth. (+student co-author; *equal authorship)
Priya Fielding-Singh and Marianne Cooper. 2023. “Negotiating good motherhood: Foodwork, Emotion Work, and Downscaling.” Journal of Marriage and Family.
Priya Fielding-Singh* and Merin Oleschuk*. 2023. “Unequal foodwork: Situating the sociology of feeding within diet and nutrition disparities.” Sociology Compass. (*equal authorship)
Priya Fielding-Singh and Marianne Cooper. 2022. “The emotional management of motherhood: foodwork, maternal guilt and emotion work.” Journal of Marriage and Family.
Daniel Carlson, Priya Fielding-Singh, Richard Petts, and Kristi Williams. 2022. “Between a Rock and a Hard Place: COVID Concerns and Partnered US Mothers’ Employment During the COVID-19 Pandemic.” Socius.
Priya Fielding-Singh and Amelia Dmowska+. 2022. “Obstetric gaslighting and the denial of mothers’ realities.” Social Science and Medicine. (+student co-author)
Doug McAdam*, Priya Fielding-Singh*, Krystal Laryea, and Jennifer Hill. 2022. “The onset, evolution and impact of college activism.” Mobilization. (*equal authorship)
Vergara, Monica, Michelle E. Hauser, Lucia Aronica, Joseph Rigdon, Priya Fielding-Singh, Cynthia W. Shih, and Christopher D. Gardner. 2021. "Associations of Changes in Blood Lipid Concentrations with Changes in Dietary Cholesterol Intake in the Context of a Healthy Low-Carbohydrate Weight Loss Diet: A Secondary Analysis of the DIETFITS Trial.” Nutrients.
Priya Fielding-Singh, Anna Epperson, and Judith Prochaska. 2021. “Tobacco Product Promotions Remain Ubiquitous and are Associated with Use and Susceptibility to Use among Adolescents.” Nicotine and Tobacco Research.
Christopher Gardner, Anthony Crimarco, Matthew Landry, and Priya Fielding-Singh. 2020. “Nutrition Study Design Issues.” American Journal of Health Promotion.
Priya Fielding-Singh, Erin Vogel, and Judith Prochaska. 2020. “Occupying multiple stigmatized identities: smoking and unemployment stigmas among the unemployed.” Social Science and Medicine – Population Health.
Anthony Crimarco, Sparkle Springfield, Christina Petlura, Taylor Streaty, Kristen Cunanan, Priya Fielding-Singh, Christopher Gardner. 2020. “A randomized cross-over trial on the effect of plant-based vs. animal-based meat on TMAO and cardiovascular disease risk factors in generally healthy adults: Study With Appetizing Plantfood – Meat Eating Alternative Trial (SWAP-MEAT).” The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
Kathleen Gali, Brittany Pike, Matthew Kendra, Cindy Tran, Priya Fielding-Singh, Kayla Jimenez, Rachelle Mirkin, and Judith Prochaska. 2020. “Integration of Tobacco Treatment Services into Cancer Care at Stanford.”International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.
Priya Fielding-Singh. 2019. “You’re Worth What You Eat: Adolescent Beliefs about Healthy Eating, Morality and Socioeconomic Status.” Social Science and Medicine.
Priya Fielding-Singh, Michele Patel, Abby King, and Christopher Gardner. 2019. “Pretreatment Psychosocial and Demographic Factors Associated with Attrition and 12-Month Weight Gain in the DIETFITS Weight Loss Trial.” Obesity.
Priya Fielding-Singh, Catherine Brown-Johnson, Marily Oppezzo, Smita Das, Robert Jackler, and Judith Prochaska. 2019. “E-Cigarettes: Harmful or Harm-Reducing? Evaluation of a Novel Online CME Program.” Journal of General Internal Medicine.
Jennifer Wang and Priya Fielding-Singh. 2018. “How Food Rules at Home Influence Adolescent Independent Food Choices.” Journal of Adolescent Health.
Swethaa Ballakrishnen, Priya Fielding-Singh, and Devon Magliozzi. 2018. “Intentional Invisibility: Professional Women and the Navigation of Workplace Constraints.” Sociological Perspectives.
Priya Fielding-Singh. 2017. “A Taste of Inequality: Food’s Symbolic Value across the Socioeconomic Spectrum.” Sociological Science.
Priya Fielding-Singh and Jennifer Wang. 2017. “Table Talk: How Mothers and Teenagers Across Socioeconomic Status Discuss Food.” Social Science and Medicine.
Priya Fielding-Singh. 2017. “Dining with Dad: Fathers’ Influences on Family Food Practices.” Appetite.
Nicole Ardoin, Rachelle Gould, Elin Kelsey, and Priya Fielding-Singh. 2014. “Collaborative and Transformational Leadership in the Environmental Realm.” Journal of Environmental Policy and Planning.
How the Other Half Eats: The Untold Story of Food and Inequality in America
Inequality in America manifests in many ways, but perhaps nowhere more than in how we eat. From her years of field research, sociologist and ethnographer Priya Fielding-Singh brings us into the kitchens of dozens of families to explore how—and why—we eat the way we do. By diving into the nuances of these families’ lives, Fielding-Singh lays bare the limits of efforts narrowly focused on improving families’ food access. Instead, she reveals how being rich or poor in America impacts something even more fundamental than the food families can afford: these experiences impact the very meaning of food itself.
Packed with lyrical storytelling and groundbreaking research, as well as Fielding-Singh’s personal experiences with food as a biracial, South Asian American woman, How the Other Half Eats illuminates exactly how inequality starts on the dinner plate. Once you’ve taken a seat at tables across America, you’ll never think about class, food, and public health the same way again.
PhD, Sociology, Stanford University 2018
MA, Cultural Studies, University of Bremen 2011
BS with Honors, Education and Social Policy, Northwestern University 2008