What we eat is shaped by more than just hunger. This idea lies at the heart of Prabu Nadaraja's doctoral research, which explores how food representations on social media influence the immigrant community and their health.
As a second-year PhD student in the health information science program at Western, under the supervision of sociologist and Faculty of Information and Media Studies professor Anabel Quan-Haase, he studies social media foodscapes. Those are digital environments where people share or engage with food-related content - think "What I Eat in Day" posts on Instagram or recipes on TikTok.
Nadaraja's research spans day-to-day interactions, trends and celebrations around food on social media. He's interested in how those kinds of posts shape collective learning, create belonging and influence perceptions of health and well-being among Tamil immigrants.
"Technology shapes our lives more than ever before in human history. Social media plays a crucial role in this change. Online communities are already reshaping our economic and political systems, making it essential to study their impact on public health," Nadaraja said.
The spark that led to his doctoral research first took shape during his master's studies at the University of Malaysia, where Nadaraja investigated adolescent food choices. But its inspiration traces back even further, to his early working experience in a community health setting in his hometown Jaffna, Sri Lanka.
For over a decade, Nadaraja served in a health promotion role at SUVADI, a social enterprise in northern Sri Lanka that he co-founded while a medical student at the University of Jaffna. Nadaraja developed and executed community health initiatives, working closely with various government departments and international funders to tackle widespread malnutrition in northern Sri Lanka - an intergenerational crisis that has persisted in the aftermath of the country's ethnic conflict.
Through years of experience, Nadaraja recognized the real solution to public health challenges such as malnutrition lies within the socio-political system rather than simply in public health.
"Public health is not just the work of the health department itself. So many people in other sectors also play a role to enable public health; our role is to get everyone working together towards a common goal," he said.
Completing a master of public health in 2023 at the University of Malaya in Malaysia, under the supervision of professor Victor Hoe Chee Wai Abdullah, ultimately led him to the doctoral program at Western.
Here, he's narrowing his focus to social media foodscapes and their impact on the health of immigrants living in Ontario. Nadaraja draws on interdisciplinary expertise in the Faculty of Information and Media Studies (FIMS) and the Faculty of Health Studies to inform his work. The health information science program is run jointly between the two faculties.
Alongside his academic pursuits, Nadaraja is also a volunteer food activist with Slow Food International, where he supports immigrant communities to ensure good, clean and fair food. As a Slow Food Farm Accelerator, he encourages recent immigrants in Scarbrough, Ont. to engage in community farming, which in turn helps them tackle food insecurity and cultivate diversity in their new homes.
A vegetarian who loves learning about traditional foods from other cultures, Nadaraja is particularly interested in dishes made from wild, foraged plants.
He is currently working to deepen his understanding of Canada's public-health system and strengthen connections with immigrant organizations in London, Ont. and Toronto, particularly those working with South Asian communities. Nadaraja hopes his work will help bridge the gap between research, policy and real-world practice.
