Email: k.talty@unisg.it
Università degli Studi di Scienze Gastronomiche
Piazza Vittorio Emanuele, 9
fraz. Pollenzo – 12042 Bra (Cn)
BIOGRAPHY
Kiva is a research collaborator and gastronome at the University of Gastronomic Sciences of Pollenzo. She works in the Pollenzo Food Lab, the applied research laboratory at the university, and she is the project manager of the PRO-BEN S.A.M.B.A. project (translated as Health, Motor Activity, and Wellness in Academia) proposed by MUR (Ministry of University and Research).
In 2017, she graduated with a Bachelor’s and two Minor’s from Spring Hill College (USA) in Hispanic Studies, Latin American Studies, and Eastern Philosophy, respectively, setting her trajectory in cultural studies. In 2018, she began studying museology in tandem with working at Naples Botanical Garden (USA). She created and instructed family, adult, wellness, and special education programming at the botanical garden and, in 2021, she completed a graduate degree in Museum Studies from Harvard Extension School (USA). That autumn, she began the Master of Gastronomy: World Food Cultures and Mobility at UNISG where she blended her cultural and museum studies with gastronomy. Kiva graduated in 2022 with a final research project titled “Gastronomy in museums: a case study of Il piccolo museo delle cose di cucina e pasticceria.”
She began working at UNISG in 2023 as a classroom assistant for the Master of Applied Gastronomy in Culinary Arts in the Pollenzo Food Lab where she supported students and lecturers, tangentially contributing to ongoing research, student-based projects, and organizational tasks for the International Society of Gastronomic Sciences and Studies (ISGSS). She gained a basis of knowledge in applied gastronomy and project management in this period. Kiva joined S.A.M.B.A. in January 2025, for which she will develop and deliver gastronomic encounters with participating university students, focusing on food as a tool for wellness, autonomy, and creativity.
SPECIFIC RESEARCH TOPICS
- Applied gastronomy
- Wellness and holistic health
- Cultural studies
- Gastronomic anthropology
- Applied anthropology
- Museology
- Ethnobotany
- Material culture