Thomas Parker spent the Spring 2014 semester at Duke, hosted by Professor Laurent Dubois in Romance Studies. During this time he developed a transdisciplinary teaching project that engaged Duke faculty and undergraduates in numerous disciplines with the topic of "subnature" (“Subnature” is a word coined by architectural historian David Gissen for aspects of nature that the architectural discipline has traditionally shunned, such as dankness, darkness, mud, weeds, smoke, puddles, dust, debris, crowds, and pigeons. Subnature encapsulates the “problems” architects have attempted to solve, circumvent and avoid in favor of qualities such as light, airiness, cleanliness, and flow.) as applied to food.

Parker returned to Duke in Fall 2014 to coordinate a series of events, Subnature and Culinary Culture, that allowed the Duke community to explore “goût du terroir” (“taste of place”), a term for the distinct flavors imprinted on a food or wine by its physical origin, as well as the social and cultural impacts of incorporating "subnatural" foods into mainstream dining.