Foodways and Identity: Conference on Food and Drink Traditions

Foodways and Identity: Conference on Food and Drink Traditions
18-22 November 2019, Copenhagen, Denmark
https://www.islanddynamics.org/foodwaysconference.html

This international academic conference explores how traditions involving food and drink help shape and maintain cultural identity across the globe.

Everyone eats, yet cultures around the world have developed strikingly different traditions surrounding food and drinks, ranging from customs concerning the slaughtering of animals to food preparation, snacks, meals, and toasts. Foodways may be localised, but they have also long been globalised, with trading routes transporting both staple and luxury ingredients and produce between far-flung destinations: Bronze Age salt roads, ancient intercontinental spice routes, the Classical Mediterranean’s wine and garum trades, and the introduction of New World produce into Old World kitchens all evidence the historical significance of food and drink for economies and societies.

Eating and drinking customs continue to travel, intermingle, and influence one another to this day through the increased ease with which peoples and their foods and drinks can be transported around the world. At the same time, however, people are embracing elements of their traditional (or purportedly traditional) foodways as a means of reinforcing and sustaining cultural identities. In multicultural cities, this is true for both immigrant and native populations. It is thus that, for example, the immigration-driven flourishing of foreign foodways in Copenhagen has occurred alongside revitalised or possibly reinvented traditions of ultra-localism, most notably in the form of the so-called ‘New Nordic’ cuisine.

This conference will consider the ways in which food and drink traditions interact with one another and with the cultures among which they occur. Special emphasis will be placed on the role played by foodways in the maintenance and changing of identity.

About the conference.
Foodways and Identity allows delegates to contextualise knowledge and engage with community members. On 18-20 November, delegates will explore Copenhagen’s foodways in practice. We will speak with local producers, retailers, and restaurateurs, but we will also dive into the diversity of food and drink traditions across Copenhagen’s various neighbourhoods. Delegates will get a great taste of Copenhagen identity: traditional Danish restaurants, Arab markets, hip organic café culture, the high and low cultures of the ‘New Nordic’ cuisine, old-fashioned Danish bars, outdoor Christmas markets, and much more. Delegates will also visit Tivoli Gardens, a historic amusement park that has developed into a key site for Danish identity building and cultural expression. On 21-22 December, conference presentations will be held at VerdenKulturCentret, Copenhagen’s world cultural centre.

How to propose a presentation.
Presentations are welcome on all aspects of food and drink traditions from any cultures. Presentations last a maximum of 20 minutes, followed by around 10 minutes’ audience discussion. The deadline for abstracts is 31 May 2019, but to take advantage of early registration rates and ensure that you have time to seek funding, we recommend that you submit your abstract early. To propose a presentation, please visit the conference website and follow the instructions there.

Convenors: Paul Hartvigson & Adam Grydehøj

Enquiries: آدرس ایمیل جهت جلوگیری از رباتهای هرزنامه محافظت شده اند، جهت مشاهده آنها شما نیاز به فعال ساختن جاوا اسكریپت دارید
Web address: https://www.islanddynamics.org/foodwaysconference.html