Hi, we’re Keri and Kelsi Matwick, identical twin sisters and linguists who are passionate about language, food, and culture. In this space, we write about a range of topics–cookbooks, cooking shows, tourism, etc.– all centered around food and language and their dialogue with culture and society.
Keri teaches language and communication at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, and Kelsi teaches academic writing at the University Writing Program (UWP), University of Florida, USA.
Together, they teach a course on food, culture, and the media in the College of Journalism and Communication at the University of Florida.
Kelsi and Keri also teach English Composition for Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU).
They earned their PhDs in Linguistics at the University of Florida (2016). Kelsi’s dissertation examined language and gender in cookbooks by female celebrity chefs while Keri examined storytelling and authenticity on cooking shows.
Kelsi and Keri began their academic career by specializing in Spanish language and literature with a BA and MA from the University of Notre Dame (2005, 2010). They studied abroad in Spain on several occasions and have traveled extensively to other Spanish-speaking countries. They also studied French, art, and history in Paris, studied Japanese in Tokyo, and researched second language acquisition in Montpellier, France.
Spring 2018, Keri was a Fulbright Scholar in Honduras and taught English for Tourism in Tegucigalpa at the Universidad Pedagogica Nacional Francisco Morazan.
The twin sisters have twelve years of teaching at the undergraduate level: two years of Spanish and ten of English Academic Writing and Professional Communication. They also have a Foreign Language Teaching Certificate and a Teaching English as a Second Language Certificate.
Keri and Kelsi are United States Air Force veterans and served active duty as Personnel Officers at Elmendorf Air Force Base, Anchorage, Alaska, 2005-2008. They worked with an F-16 jet squadron and the base personnel center. They were Reservists until 2015, separating as Captains (O-3).
They are also skilled at web design and earned a graduate certificate in Web Design and Online Communication at the University of Florida, 2016.
When not researching food and language or travelling, they are musicians and have performed violin and piano duets for many weddings and ceremonies. They also run half and full marathons!
Research interests: discourse analysis; multimodal analysis; food discourse; food and language; celebrity chefs; food, media and cultural studies; writing