Dr. Mark Chatarpal is the Executive Director of Hunter College’s NYC Food Policy Center, where he leads efforts to develop intersectoral, innovative, and evidence-based solutions to prevent diet-related diseases and promote food security in New York City and other urban centers. He is a Food Anthropologist and holds a Ph.D. in Anthropology from Indiana University Bloomington, an M.A. in Anthropology, and a B.A. (Hons) specializing in Caribbean Studies. He also serves as a Doctoral Lecturer within Hunter College’s Department of Nutrition and Public Health. He previously served as an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Vassar College, teaching courses on Food Anthropology, Environmental Anthropology, Food and Indigeneity, and Research Methods. He also served as an Adjunct Lecturer at the NYU Food Studies Program, where he taught advanced graduate seminars on Inequality and Food Systems, and finally as an Adjunct Lecturer at The Culinary Institute of America, teaching courses on the Anthropology of Food and Introduction to Gastronomy. He continues to advance collective discussions on food pedagogy and enjoys mentoring diverse students and practitioners dedicated to transforming the global food system.
Dr. Chatarpal’s research spans multiple countries, including Guyana, Belize, and Ghana, where he has examined critical issues, including food sovereignty, Indigenous land rights, agricultural livelihoods, and the conceptualization of “food security” when formulating national food policy geared towards Indigenous communities. His dissertation is titled: What Do You Mean by Food Security? The Politics of Agrarian Policymaking in the Caribbean Community. Dr. Chatarpal’s scholarship has been supported by numerous competitive fellowships and grants, such as the Journal of Peasant Studies International Writeshop Fellowship, the IU Food Institute Graduate Research Fellowship, the David C. Skomp Feasibility Fellowship, and the Canadian Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Scholarship. His work has received various honors, such as the Frederick I. Case Book Prize for scholarly excellence in Caribbean Studies from the University of Toronto, the Harold K. Schneider Prize for best paper in Economic Anthropology from Indiana University, and acknowledgment for his research from the National Toshaos Council (NTC), Guyana’s leading indigenous organization.
His applied anthropological work includes three years of collaborative research with the NTC, focusing on redefining the term “agriculture” in the 2006 Amerindian Act to align with Articles 18, 20, and 23 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. He also served as a Food Policy Specialist for the Forest Peoples Programme, where he identified constitutional and policy provisions to strengthen and protect Indigenous food systems and land tenure claims for three Indigenous institutions in Guyana. Beyond academia, Dr. Chatarpal has extensive experience as a consultant and advisor for international development organizations. He is on the roster of experts of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, as a Social Inclusion, Indigenous Peoples, and Land Tenure Specialist. Additionally, he served as a Monitoring and Evaluation Advisor for the U.S. Department of State, providing strategic guidance on complex foreign assistance programs worldwide, developing evaluation frameworks, and training stakeholders to enhance program effectiveness and accountability. Through his combined roles as a food scholar, educator, and practitioner, Dr. Chatarpal brings a distinctive, evidence-based perspective to advancing food justice and policy innovation.
