Education

Ph.D. (Nutritional Sciences), University of Toronto
M.Sc. (Nutritional Sciences), University of Toronto
Internship (Dietetics), Victoria Hospital, London, Ontario
B.S.H.Ec. (Dietetics and Nutrition), University of Saskatchewan

Research Interests

The question that weaves a common thread through my various research activities relates to how people’s everyday food practices and concerns are shaped by socially constructed notions about food, health, bodies, and social roles. My study of food habits draws upon theoretical and methodological approaches from the social sciences, particularly in the use of qualitative research methods, rooted in sociological and anthropological traditions. Key components include learning about the meanings food and eating have for people, and developing an understanding of the links between those subjective meanings, the environments in which they have arisen, and the eating patterns that have ensued.

My ongoing CIHR funded research program investigates family food practices and decision making (http://familyfoodpractices.landfood.ubc.ca). Using qualitative interviews, participant observation, and photo elicitation techniques, this research provides in-depth understanding of the processes through which social determinants such as gender, age, class, ethnicity and region produce nutrition and health inequities, by explicating the role of the family context within broader social networks in the transmission of (and resistance to) social expectations shaping health practices.

I am also a co-investigator for Think & Eat Green @ School, a SSHRC Community University Research Alliance grant (2010-15). This project, led by Dr. Alejandro Rojas, is a partnership with the Vancouver School Board, Vancouver Coastal Health, Vancouver Food Policy Council and a number of non-profit organizations. The goals of the project are to address sustainability and health issues within school food systems by promoting school gardens, integration of foods produced at school and other local foods into school food systems, redesign of school food programs and spaces, and integration of food, health and sustainability issues across the curriculum. The project also connects University students to the public school system through community service learning placements connected to the research. My role in the project includes leading the ‘food consumption’ theme, one of three primary themes in the research.

In addition to these core projects, I have directed studies exploring other aspects of everyday nutrition behaviours, including food practices and concerns of a) men with prostate cancer, b) gay men, c) young childless couples, and d) men who live alone. In another study, I examined women’s understandings of the relationships among diet, health, and breast cancer risk. I am currently initiating a study to examine the knowledge, beliefs and practices relating to Vitamin D status of immigrant mothers and their infants from three cultural groups in Metro Vancouver. In all of these studies, I have been interested in what people understand to be ‘healthy eating’ and how those understandings relate to physical health concerns, body image issues, and/or social roles (e.g., gender, family roles and relationships, ethnocultural context). I am also interested in how people describe their actual eating habits in comparison to the notions of ‘healthy eating’ that they hold, and the other factors that appear to be shaping those eating habits. 

Research Projects

• Local food cultures and socioeconomic status as social determinants of nutritional health: exploring family food practices (funded by the Canadian Institutes for Health Research)
• Think & Eat Green @ School (funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council) 
• Vitamin D and immigrant mothers and infants in Metro Vancouver: status, knowledge, beliefs and practices (funded by the FNH Vitamin Research Fund)

Teaching

• Nutrition Education in the Community; Health Research Design
• Use of Community Service Learning, Problem Based Learning and Web-based Learning in University teaching
• UBC Killam Teaching Award, 2003

Selected Publications (Last 5 Years)

McPhail D, Chapman GE, Beagan BL. "Too Much of that Stuff Can't be Good: Canadian Teenagers, Morality, and Fast Food Consumption." Social Science and Medicine, 2011; 73(2):301-307.

Rojas A, Valley W, Mansfield B, Orrego E, Chapman GE, Harlap Y. "Toward Food System Sustainability through School Food System Change: Think&EatGreen@School and the Making of a Community-University Research Alliance." Sustainability, 2011;3(5):763-788.

Sharma S, Chapman GE. "What Can a Photo Tell Us? Photo Elicitation in a Qualitative Food Study." Cuizine, 2011;3(1). Available at www.erudit.org/revue/cuizine/2011/v3/n1/1004726ar.html.

Mróz LW, Chapman GE, Oliffe JL, Bottorff JL. Gender relations, prostate cancer and diet: Re-inscribing hetero-normative food practices. Social Science and Medicine, 2011;72(9):1499-1506.

Fielden SJ, Chapman GE, Cadell S. "Managing stigma in adolescent HIV: silence, secrets, and sanctioned spaces." Culture Health and Sexuality, 2011;13(3):267-81.

Hammond GK, Chapman GE, Barr SI. "Healthy midlife Canadian women: How bone health is considered in their food choice systems." Journal of Human Nutrition and Dietetics, 2011;24(1):61-67.

Mróz LW, Chapman GE, Oliffe JL, Bottorff JL. Men, food and prostate cancer:  Gender influences on men’s diets. American Journal of Men’s Health, 2011;5(2)177-187.

Chapman GE, Ristovski-Slijepcevic S, Beagan BL. "Meanings of food, eating, and health in Punjabi families living in Vancouver, Canada." Health Education Journal, 2011;70(1):102-112.

Ristovski-Slijepcevic S, Bell K, Chapman GE, Beagan B. "Being ‘thick’ indicates you are eating, you are healthy and you have an attractive body shape: Fatness, food choice and body image perspectives of men and women in Canada." Health Sociology Review, 2010;19(3):317-329.

Mróz LW, Chapman GE, Oliffe JL, Bottorff JL. "Prostate cancer, masculinity and food. Rationales for perceived diet change." Appetite, 2010;55(3):398-406.

Green TJ, Barr SI, Chapman GE. "The majority of older British Columbians take Vitamin D containing supplements." Canadian Journal of Public Health, 2010;101(3):246-250.

Mundel E, Chapman GE. "A decolonizing approach to health promotion: the case of the Urban Aboriginal Community Kitchen Garden Project." Health Promotion International, 2010;25(2):166-173.

Beagan BL, Chapman GE, Ristovski-Slijepcevic S. "People are just becoming more conscious of how everything's connected: ‘Ethical’ food consumption in two regions of Canada." Sociology, 2010;44(4):751-69.

Ristovski-Slijepcevic S, Chapman GE, Beagan BL. "Being a ‘good mother’: Dietary governmentality in the family food practices of three ethnocultural groups in Canada." Health, 2010;14(5) 467–483.

Wassink HL, Chapman GE. "Promoting effective teamwork – Vancouver dietitians’ perspectives regarding their roles in long term care." Canadian Journal of Dietetic Practice and Research, 2010;71:e12-e17.