Helen Leach
Helen May Leach was a New Zealand academic who specialised in food anthropology. She was a professor emerita at the University of Otago.
Early life and education
Born Helen May Keedwell in Wellington on 3 July 1945, Leach was the daughter of Peggy and Harvey Keedwell. Her older sister, Nancy Tichborne, was a watercolour artist.After moving with her family to Dunedin in the early 1950s, Leach was educated at Otago Girls' High School. She went on to study at the University of Otago, from where she graduated Master of Arts.
Career
Leach was appointed to the staff of the University of Otago in 1972, and was appointed to a chair in anthropology in 2002. Originally trained in archaeology, she completed a PhD in 1976 at Otago, with a thesis titled Horticulture in prehistoric New Zealand: an investigation of the function of the stone walls of Palliser Bay.She studied food, eating, cooking, associated equipment and paraphernalia in New Zealand. Her interests ranged from prehistoric horticulture and the evolution of human diet to the history of cooking, the origins of recipes as well as the development of kitchens and batteries de cuisine in the twentieth century. Her extensive collection of cookery books, especially community cookbooks, provided a significant resource for colleagues' investigations, which compensated for the incompleteness of that of the National Library of New Zealand. Reviewing Leach's 2014 book Kitchens, Barbara Santich observed that "New Zealanders are indeed fortunate to have Helen Leach as guide, guardian and safe-keeper of their gastronomic past", noting too that the work was illustrated with images of artefacts from Leach's own personal collection.
When Leach retired from the University of Otago in 2008, she was granted the title of emeritus professor.