Dana Simmons
Associate Professor of Society, Environment, and Health Equity, University of California-Riverside
Chapter Member: Los Angeles Unified SSN
Areas of Expertise:
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About Dana
Simmons is an interdisciplinary historian whose research engages with questions of basic needs: minimum wages, minimum standards of living, hunger and starvation. Simmons is author of On Hunger: Violence and Craving in America from Starvation to Ozempic (UC Press, Open Access). She is Chair of the Department of Society, Environment and Health Equity at UC Riverside.
Contributions
The Price of Hunger in the United States
Commentary,
In the News
Opinion: "Hunger’s Whip: Why Connecting US Food Stamps to Work is Outdated and Ineffective," Dana Simmons, The Guardian , December 12, 2025.
Publications
On Hunger: Violence and Craving in America, from Starvation to Ozempic (University of California Press, 2025).
Examines how hunger has been intentionally produced and manipulated throughout U.S. history. Argues that hunger became a tool—used as a weapon, policy instrument, and scientific method—to control and shape behavior.