Jessica Loyer

Research Interests

Consumption and Everyday Life Cultural Studies Globalisation and Culture History Media Studies Social Sciences Methods Social Studies of Science and Technology Sociology of health Public health nutrition

Dr Jessica Loyer

NHMRC Grant-Funded Researcher B

School of Society and Culture

College of Education, Behavioural and Social Sciences

Eligible to supervise Masters and PhD (as Co-Supervisor) - email supervisor to discuss availability.

Available For Media Comment.

I am an interdisciplinary health humanities and social sciences researcher specialising in food, nutrition, alcohol and health cultures. My research draws on food studies, sociology, media and communication, gender studies, and science and technology studies to investigate how health, food and drink practices are shaped by culture, policy and public discourse. I employ qualitative methods including interviews, ethnography, discourse and media analysis, archival research and co-designed community research. Current postdoctoral research examines the sober curious movement as a strategy for reducing alcohol consumption.

Date Position Institution name
2026 - ongoing Research Fellow University of Adelaide
2025 - 2026 Research Fellow Torrens University Australia
2022 - 2025 Lecturer William Angliss Institute
2022 - 2022 Research Associate University of Adelaide
2020 - 2022 Researcher Cancer Council South Australia
2019 - 2020 Research Assistant Cancer Council South Australia

Date Type Title Institution Name Country Amount
2026 Award Emerging Scholar Award Sixteenth International Conference on Food Studies Japan -
2015 Scholarship Student Research Grant Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery United Kingdom -
2014 Scholarship Doreen McCarthy Bursary Australian Federation of University Women South Australia Australia 2750
2013 Scholarship Research Abroad Scholarship University of Adelaide Graduate Centre Australia -
2012 Scholarship Australian Postgraduate Award University of Adelaide Australia -

Date Institution name Country Title
2012 - 2016 University of Adelaide Australia PhD
2006 - 2007 University of Adelaide and Le Cordon Bleu Australia MA
1998 - 2002 Barnard College United States BA

Year Citation
2024 Morris, J. N., Loyer, J., & Blunt, J. (2024). Stigma, risks, and benefits of medicinal cannabis use among Australians with cancer. Supportive Care in Cancer, 32(4), 7 pages.
DOI Scopus5 WoS5 Europe PMC2
2023 Phillipov, M., Luckman, S., & Loyer, J. (2023). Agile producers and consumer-saviours: Discourses of resilience and responsibility in Australian media coverage of artisanal food and craft. Media International Australia, 196(1), 94-107.
DOI Scopus2 WoS2
2020 Loyer, J., Whittaker, A., Buddle, E., & Ankeny, R. (2020). A Review of Legal Regulation of Religious Slaughter in Australia: Failure to Regulate or a Regulatory Fail?. Animals, 10(9), 22 pages.
DOI Scopus11 WoS6 Europe PMC3
2019 Phillipov, M., & Loyer, J. (2019). In the wake of the supermarket ‘milk wars’: media, farmers and the power of pastoral sentimentality. Discourse, Context and Media, 32, 100346-1-100346-8.
DOI Scopus13 WoS9
2018 Loyer, J., & Knight, C. (2018). Selling the "Inca superfood": nutritional primitivism in superfoods books and maca marketing. Food, Culture and Society, 21(4), 449-467.
DOI Scopus43 WoS33
2017 Loyer, J. (2017). The cranberry as food, health food, and superfood: challenging or maintaining hegemonic nutrition?. Graduate Journal of Food Studies, 4(2), 33-49.

Year Citation
2025 Loyer, J. (2025). Superfoods. In Elgar Encyclopedia of Food and Society (pp. 445-446). Edward Elgar Publishing.
DOI
2024 Loyer, J. (2024). Between Science and Tradition: Nutrition Epistemologies and Extractionist Logics in Chia Seed Development and Marketing. In Food Marketing and Selling Healthy Lifestyles with Science Transhistorical Perspectives (pp. 242-258). Routledge.
DOI Scopus2
2019 Loyer, J. (2019). Functional Foods as Commodities. In Encyclopedia of Food and Agricultural Ethics Second Edition (pp. 1377-1385). Springer Netherlands.
DOI
2016 Loyer, J. (2016). Superfoods. In P. B. Thompson, & D. M. Kaplan (Eds.), Encyclopedia of food and agricultural ethics (2nd ed., pp. 1-7). Springer Netherlands.
DOI
2014 Thompson, P. B., & Kaplan, D. M. (Eds.) (2014). Encyclopedia of Food and Agricultural Ethics. In . Springer Netherlands.
DOI
2014 Loyer, J. (2014). Superfoods. In Encyclopedia of Food and Agricultural Ethics Second Edition (pp. 2269-2275). Springer Netherlands.
DOI Scopus1
2014 Loyer, J. (2014). Functional Foods as Commodities. In Encyclopedia of Food and Agricultural Ethics (pp. 1064-1072). Springer Netherlands.
DOI
- O'Hagan, L. A., & Eriksson, G. (2024). Food Marketing and Selling Healthy Lifestyles with Science. Routledge.
DOI

Year Citation
2017 Loyer, J. (2017). What makes a superfoods “super”? The discursive construction of utopian edibles. Poster session presented at the meeting of Proceedings of the 21st Symposium of Australian Gastronomy : Utopian Appetites. Melbourne, Australia.
2017 Loyer, J., & Beckett, E. (2017). Does nutrition science (mis)inform our diets?. Poster session presented at the meeting of Emerging Issues in Science and Society. Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia.
2016 Loyer, J. (2016). Marketing Australian Chia Seed: Functional Nutritionism Meets Nutritional Primitivism. Poster session presented at the meeting of Scarborough Fare: Global Foodways and Local Foods in a Transnational City. Joint 2016 Annual Meetings & Conference of the Agriculture, Food, and Human Values Society (AFHVS), Association for the Study of Food and Society (ASFS), & Canadian Association for Food Studies. Toronto, Canada.
2016 Loyer, J., & Buddle, E. (2016). A 'Natural' Symbol: Nature, Morality, and Politics in Online Raw Milk Advocacy Communities. Poster session presented at the meeting of Food Politics: From the Margins to the Mainstream. University of Tasmania.
2014 Loyer, J. (2014). Jewish Sabbath Cooking in Australia: One Pot, Many Meanings. Poster session presented at the meeting of Australian Association of Jewish Studies Conference. Adelaide, Australia.
2014 Loyer, J. (2014). Contesting Definitions of Sustainability in the Massachusetts Cranberry Industry. Poster session presented at the meeting of International Food Studies Conference. Adelaide, Australia.

Year Citation
2016 Loyer, J. (2016). The Social Lives of Superfoods. (PhD Thesis, University of Adelaide).
2007 Loyer, J. (2007). A pot of many meanings : the shifting shape and symbolism of Shabbat stew from the old world to the new. (Master's Thesis, University of Adelaide).

Year Citation
2016 Loyer, J. (2016). Smoothies as talismans: the allure of superfoods and the dangers of nutritional primitivism. The Conversation.

Date Role Membership Country
2016 - ongoing Member Cultural Studies Association of Australasia Australia
2016 - ongoing Member Association for the Study of Food and Society -

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