Second Light Center research grant awarded to marketing professor

KALAMAZOO—Dr. Ann Veeck, Western Michigan University professor of marketing, was recently awarded the second Timothy Light Center for Chinese Studies Research Grant for her project, "Food Consumption Patterns in Urban China, 1996-2013."

Veeck will receive $3,000 to examine how food-related behaviors and perceptions of urban Chinese families have changed in the last two decades. She will use the award to help fund a 15-day trip to China to conduct household surveys that replicate food consumption behavior surveys she conducted in Nanjing in spring 1996.

Her research will focus on the rapid globalization and privatization of the markets in China that have resulted in dramatic changes in food consumption patterns in urban areas. It also will expand upon dissertation work she did in China during 1995-96. That work involved measuring and analyzing important behaviors and perceptions related to food shopping, including food expenditures, timing of food shopping trips, choice of food retailers, patronage of restaurants and use of processed food.

Light Center Research Grants are awarded annually and provide support to WMU faculty members for research and creative activities that support the study of Greater China.

For more information, visit the Light Center at wmich.edu/chinesestudiescenter.