Monday, September 19, 2011

 

CFP: The Language of Food

CONFERENCE:
“The Language of Food: Exploring Representations of the Culinary in Culture"

*Location *Cornell University, Ithaca NY
*Date *April 13-14 2012

*Description *

The renowned author Brillat-Savarin asserted that what we eat speaks volumes about who we are. This conference pushes the axiom further, asserting that it is not only what we eat, but also how we represent nourishment in art, literature, and visual culture that provides this critical information. We will examine how food and representations of the culinary function as a sort of language. The language of food, at once material and abstract, permits us to approach intangible meanings through the study of concrete objects and media. Organized around this general topic, the conference seeks to explore artistic, literary, historical, and sociological perspectives that use the culinary as a means to understand culture. We invite papers that explore these themes from a variety of disciplinary traditions.
Please send a 250-word abstract and a CV to Diana Garvin, deg97@cornell.edu by Nov. 15.
In addition to fostering broad, scholarly dialogue regarding "the language of food," this conference will include a number of panels targeting specific questions related to this concept. Please submit abstracts to either the general call for papers, or a specific panel. Do not double-post.

Additional panels will be announced in the coming weeks.

*Call for Abstracts*

O mangi questa minestra: Food as a Site of Coercion

From familial insistence to political intimidation, third parties often attempt to control what we eat. This panel examines the content and stylistics of these messages with the goal of identifying the larger aims that these agents seek to accomplish while communicating through the medium of food. Questions to be posed include: Why are these groups and individuals invested in others’ food choices? How does food, the medium of this coercion, evoke their true aim? And finally, why use food to accomplish these ends? Themes to be considered include politics, mass media, gender studies, the family, religion, regionalism and ethnic identity. Relevant studies of Italian, European, Italian-American, and American examples are encouraged.

Please send a 250-word abstract and a CV to Diana Garvin, deg97@cornell.edu by Nov. 15.





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