Email: seantay@live.unc.edu
Phone:
Office: 303D Alumni
Before joining the UNC anthropology department, I completed my undergraduate in Winemaking and Viticulture at Cal Poly on the Central Coast of California(2013) and my masters in the Anthropology of Food at the University of London SOAS(2022). After my undergraduate degree I spent 6 years working as a winemaker and farmhand at farms and wineries in California, Australia, South Africa, Argentina, France, and Costa Rica. Prior to the pandemic, Sean I spent 3 years running my own workshop business teaching Bean-to-Bar chocolate making, food fermentation and winemaking at companies, schools, and libraries across the San Francisco Bay Area. I am a member of The Farmworker Project team, a community of farmworkers rights advocates who utilise our experiences in Agriculture and rural communities to contextualise and advocate for a more progressive agriculture system. My research interests include agrarian transitions, corporate takeovers of agriculture, peasant movements, food sovereignty, and rural livelihoods.
Presentations and Media Spotlights
Ivy League Vegan Fest Presentation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axeCIbXQKTs&t=5836s
Marin Independent Journal Citizen Spotlight
UN Food and Climate Shapers Conference Speaker
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__VbQzkHYBg&t=242s
Chocolate Workshop with the Oakland Raiders and American Cancer Society
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xa42QHAw7RA
Marin Independent Journal Citizen Spotlight
https://www.marinij.com/2018/12/14/pj-bremier-3/
Social Media
The Farmworker Project Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/thefarmworkerproject/?hl=en
The Farmworker Project instagram has 41.8k followers on Instagram. Our educational work contextualizes injustice in Agriculture and elevates activists/farmworkers and farm worker organizations. 186,000 accounts reached between the Week of November 30th-December 6th.
Farmworker Project TikTok: 58,400 Followers
https://www.tiktok.com/@thefarmworkerproject?
Media Production Skill and Worker Technology Platforms
La Mano de Obra Campesina: The Farm Work Force:
Short Documentary where I filmed, interviewed and edited a piece with the help of Amadeo Sumano to present a website we have been working on that gives Farmworkers the ability to review their workplace anonymously. I was responsible for all media production and audio and visual editing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BE0_XawO35w&t=15s
FairCampo.com: A bilingual website(in beta) we designed that gives farmworkers the ability to communicate anonymously about farm job working conditions. You can visit the site and see it completed. I am working with anthropologists and farmworker organizations to get feedback on the site before spring launch with website security advice from the Digital Defense Fund.
WineVoyage.org is a website I funded and designed that gives contracted winery workers the ability to communicate anonymously about winery workplace conditions. The site has over 1500 workers, and 400 wineries reviewed in over 15 countries.
Other Awards/Honors
Rare Fruit Growers Association Keynote Speaker on issues in Cacao Production and Agroforestry
SOCAP Social Capital Markets Scholarship Entrepreneur:
Took part in three day workshop on grant writing, building social impact businesses, and fundraising
Telling Immigrant Food Stories: Fellowship Recipient
Three day workshop provided by the New School in Conjunction with Feet in 2 Worlds to provide activists with the tools needed to tell immigrant food stories. Included audio and podcast production.