Nir Avieli (PhD 2004 Hebrew University of Jerusalem) is a cultural anthropologist interested mainly in food and in tourism. He has been conducting anthropological fieldwork in the central Vietnamese town of Hoi An since 1998. His book: 'Rice Talks: Food and Community in a Vietnamese Town' was published by Indiana University Press in 2012. Nir conducted further research in Thailand, India, Singapore and Israel. He is currently writing on Vietnamese gender and Vietnamese Tourism and is compiling a "Culinary Ethnography of Israel", focused mainly on issues of food and power.