Elizabeth Engelhardt is the John Shelton Reed Distinguished Professor of Southern Studies and Department Chair of American Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Interim Senior Associate Dean for Fine Arts and Humanities in the College of Arts and Sciences. Born and raised in Hendersonville, North Carolina, her most recent books are The Foods We Eat, the Stories We Tell: Contemporary Appalachian Tables (forthcoming October 2019), A Mess of Greens: Southern Gender and Southern Food, Republic of Barbecue: Stories Beyond the Brisket, and The Larder: Food Studies Methods from the American South. Her work has appeared in two volumes of Cornbread Nation, recognizing the best southern food writing. She served on the board of the Southern Foodways Alliance. She is currently at work on a book project about the lost story of southern boardinghouse keepers who helped invent southern food, created new business and entrepreneurial models, and changed the course of politics and culture in the south.