While at the Institute, Jay was a PhD candidate in the Program in History of Science at Princeton University. They are interested in food politics, scientific authority, and consumerism. Jay’s dissertation, “Sweet Deception: A History of the Health Politics of Sugar and Artificial Sweeteners in the United States,” traces ideas about the healthfulness of sugar and artificial sweeteners across scientific literature, government regulations, and dietary advice from the Progressive era to the rise of aspartame in the 1980s. Jay graduated from Barnard College in 2014, magna cum laude, with a BA in physics and French literature.
Jay curated Making Milk: Dairy, Science, and Foodways, on view in our museum from June through December 2022.