Mark Anthony Arceño is a food and environmental anthropologist. Using the French notion of terroir as a conceptual framework, his ongoing research investigates the social-ecological system of place-based wine production in Ohio, USA, and Alsace, France, to examine how winegrowers understand, adapt, and articulate changes in their vitivinicultural (i.e., winegrowing) landscapes. Mark Anthony is especially interested in how foods and drinks of geographic origin help individuals articulate sociocultural and political senses of self and belonging in times of change (climatic or otherwise). The final phase of his research in France was supported by a Humanities and Social Sciences "Make Our Planet Great Again" Chateaubriand Fellowship, which is sponsored by the Cultural Services of the Embassy of France. 

His dissertation, "Changing (Vitivini) Cultures in Central Ohio, USA, and Alsace, Eastern France: A Comparative Study of Terroir and the Taste of Place,” includes article chapters that have been published in Anthropology of Food, Practicing Anthropology, Culture, Agriculture, Food and Environment, and Social Anthropology/Anthropologie Sociale. You can learn more about Mark Anthony's dissertation presentation here.

Mark Anthony previously completed his M.A. thesis at Ohio State, "On Consuming and Constructing Material and Symbolic Culture: An Anthropology of Pictorial Representations of Food-Based Dietary Guidelines (FBDGs)," and his B.A. Honors thesis at Albion College, "Monolingualism and Catholic South African Multiethnolinguistic Identity." He has also taught in the Department of Anthropology ("Introduction to Cultural Anthropology” and "Crisis! An Anthropological Perspective of Global Issues") and, while a student at Albion, studied abroad as part of the Boston University Paris Internship Program and the School for International Training's Multiculturalism and Social Change program in Cape Town, South Africa.

Prior to his arrival at Ohio State, Mark Anthony worked at Denison University as its first Program Coordinator in the Office of Multicultural Student Affairs, where among his many roles and responsibilities he served on multiple interdepartmental committees; mentored, supervised, and advocated for students and cultural affinity groups; and created and coordinated food and culture programming throughout the campus. 

Currently, Mark Anthony serves as the student organization advisor of the Comparative Studies Graduate Student Group, the Chapter Leader of Slow Food Columbus, the Lecture Series Team Leader of the Ohio State Anthropology Public Outreach Program, the editor-in-chief of the Culture & Agriculture Sensorium, and an inaugural Ohio Wines VIP Ambassador. He is also an Associated Faculty member in the Departments of French and Italian (FRIT 3061: Mediterranean Food Cultures) and Comparative Studies (COMPSTD 4420: Cultural Food Systems and Sustainability).

Selected Recent Publications

Arceño, Mark Anthony. 2022. "Vignerons and the Vines: Mediators of Place-based Identity in Alsace, France." Social Anthropology/Anthropologie sociale 30(1): 24-44. https://doi.org/10.3167/saas.2022.300103

Kawa, Nicholas C., Mark Anthony Arceño, Ryan Goeckner, Chelsea E. Hunter, Steven J. Rhue, Shane A. Scaggs, Matthew E. Biwer, Sean S. Downey, Julie S. Field, Kristen Gremillion, Joy McCorriston, Anna Willow, Elizabeth Newton, and Mark Moritz. 2021. "Training wicked scientists for a world of wicked problems." Humanities and Social Sciences Communications 8:189. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-021-00871-1

Arceño, Mark Anthony. 2021. "On Winegrowers and More-than-Human Workers in Ohioan and Alsatian Vineyards." Culture, Agriculture, Food and Environment 43(1): 36-46. https://doi.org/10.1111/cuag.12266

Thiollet-Scholtus, Marie, Mark Anthony Arceño, Mateus Valduga, and François Sarrazin. 2020. "Typing winegrower profiles to ease agroecological change in viticulture practices in the Loire Valley, France." Journal of Wine Research 31(4): 265-82. https://doi.org/10.1080/09571264.2020.1855579

Arceño, Mark Anthony, Deondre Smiles, Emelie Bailey, Thelma Velez, J.P. Wilson, Kelly Yotebieng, and Kendra McSweeney. 2020. “(Too) Great of Expectations? On Fieldwork, Guidelines, and Ethics in Human Geography.” AGITATE! blog. https://agitatejournal.org/too-great-expectations-on-fieldwork-guidelines-and-ethics-in-human-geography-by-mark-anthony-arceno-deondre-smiles-emelie-bailey-anurag-mazumdar-thelma-velez-j-p-wilson-kelly-yotebieng-k/

Arceño, Mark Anthony. 2020. “Variability and Change: Terroir and the Place of Climate among Ohio Winegrowers.” Anthropology of Food S14. https://doi.org/10.4000/aof.10723

Oliveira, Mayara Sanay da Silva, Mark Anthony Arceño, Priscila de Morais Sato, and Fernanda Baeza Scagliusi. 2019. “Comparison of Government Recommendations for Healthy Eating Habits in Visual Representations of Food-Based Dietary Guidelines in Latin America.” Cadernos de Saúde Pública [Reports in Public Health] 35 (12): e00177418. https://doi.org/10.1590/0102-311X00177418