🍉Thảo Dam, Ph.D.| ដាមបុប្ផាទេវី

For transparency, the ACTUAL writing period for this book was just under a year— with several rounds of internal edits for each chapter before sending off the manuscript. The remaining two years included waiting for review responses and me adjusting to life’s random happenings. Grateful we did it! 💕

There’s so much fun and wacky interdisciplinary stuff in here— Puccini operas paired with punk rock, classic films with viral Tiktoks, and a hefty serving of brain rot and AI slop commentary to balance things out.

A colourful book cover with abstract art shapes reads “Mukbang, Food Performance, and Digital Media by Ashley Thuthao Keng Dam and Stanley Ulijaszek”. The book is part of the Routledge Studies of Gastronomy, Food, and Drink.

✍️ 📖 After three years of dreaming and writing, I’m happy to present our book “ #Mukbang, Food Performance, and Digital Media” as part of the #Routledge series on #gastronomy, #food, and #drink.

🔗 Pre-orders start March 31st, but set a reminder now! ⏰ www.routledge.com/Mukbang-Food...

Hey #food people, any #opencalls for #pitches floating around? I’m feeling like #foodwriting again! #writing #journalism

Believe* it or not, I’m sure all the other applicants they rejected along with me felt the same. 😭

I was okay with not getting this role, because well, statistics. However, there was a brief moment when several colleagues told me they think I could get it and I let a part of me really beleive that.

It’s not a reflection of me or my scholarship, it’s just the times we’re living in and the fantasy outline of a colleague a search committee might have. I need to remember that. But I also need to remember it’s okay to be upset about things but not let it rule your life.

I got a rejection for an academic role I wanted, and I did the human thing and cried about it at my desk!

What good is 100 citations when most of them lead back to your toxic supervisor? 👁️👄👁️

Thao, wearing a striped shirt and baggy jeans, plays an alto saxophone with their eyes closed. In the background are thick velvet curtains.

In a weird use of free-will, I rented an alto saxophone and have begun learning on my own for almost a week now! The first song I learned to play was “Can’t help falling in love with you” 🎷✨

Ahhh thanks! Yeah, after the Great Twitter Purge and Blue Sky launch I never lurk here as much to calibrate things hehe. Will adjust 🫶🏽

I am hoping this CFP will gather some great insights on the topic. I’ll also be contributing a paper focused on food packaging! link.springer.com/collections/...

Thao stands on stage playing the flute with other musicians, who play guitar, bass guitar, piano, drums, and a singer.

Another day, another jam.

5 people stand on a stage for a jam session at the “barrel room”; a piano player, guitarist, flautist, bass player, and drummer. Thao stands in the center right to the side playing the flute, while Thao’s partner Pedro stands behind them focusing on the bass guitar.

In unexpected news, I started playing jazz flute at a local jam session meetup. Pedro (in the yellow beanie) oscillates between drums, bass, and keys, but I’m just trying to revive my 12 year old jazz band self.

To think, that bits and bobs from our fieldwork research in Cambodia will be in the National Geographic Society’s Explorer Base Camp exhibition in Washington DC! 🥹

good god, please do not do this
Do not trust this company with ANYTHING sensitive or personal.
Or any of them.

It’s 2025, almost 2026, and people still think I’m “unprofessional” because I have a facial piercing and colourful hair 😵‍💫

It's nice to be not just wanted, but openly celebrated. I love that my boss sends me kind messages and reminders that I'm appreciated. :') No gold-star-burnout for me.

The lesson learned is that it's great to write about/work on your passions and that teaching is still a glowing part of my career without the administrative squeezing and politics. I love my students. I love supportive colleagues. It's not hard for me to be happy and yet -- wow.

Just thinking about how I'll finally wrap-up my LAST academic article this year in a few days and I cannot wait to be free. 2025 was my first full year away from a FT academic role, but somehow we cranked out 5 papers and the book. Wow.

95 books!

So many connections and parallels between Thailand and Israel in this instance, atop of the military tech and equipment offerings…which means my tax dollars are sending F-16s to Cambodia as well…?

I am thinking about all the kind people I work and learn from in Oddar Meanchey, which is experiencing bombing from Thailand’s military. My friends and colleagues fled. It’s infuriating and heartbreaking.

Nobody is really talking about #Cambodia and I’m not surprised, just saddened.

The book proofs are here and I’m getting shaky and achey…almost there 😭🫥

Our #copywriter is so kind about the #book. They're enjoying it loads, have kept the unique tone of our writing voices, and apparently have gone as far into doing extra research on our topic because of curiosity spurred by reading on it. I love it! I'm happy it resonates! I'm happy we're breezing!

Could this be the year I break 100 leisure #reading #books? I'm at 89 now, about to finish 2 more today. Aside from hitting a personal record, I think I've read such a wide variety of genres this year and I'm so proud!

Don't challenge the cooking robots Faisal, they'll surprise you.

A screenshot of Reviewer 3's comments: The revised version addresses all the comments from the reviewers. The manuscript can be accepted in its current form.

Former student and co-author sent me this during our meeting dedicated to dealing with Reviewers 1 & 2's laundry list of minor revisions 😵‍💫

The manuscript is being handed off towards the production team! 🥹😭