It may be a bit bold to declare a conference the 1st biannual (what if there never is a 2nd one?), but the organizers of this particular conference seem to be on to a hot topic, so their confidence may be warranted. Note the deadline (March 23) for submissions is coming up quite soon!
THE 1st BIANNUAL CONFERENCE ON FOOD AND COMMUNICATION
Centre for Communication, Culture and Media Studies
Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh
Edinburgh, Scotland (UK)
(supported by the Association for the Study of Food and Society)
20-21 September 2018
Call for abstracts
Food is one of the key aspects through which we represent ourselves individually and as a community. It is also located at the core of many social issues and interests (Lizie 2014), and the ways through which such relationships are constructed and communicated discursively speak of power, hegemony and ideology revealing the unequal and often problematic relationships within the food system. Food features as a powerful symbol in art, reminding us of associations it can acquire related to gender, class and ethnicity. Also, it is through food-related activities, such as restaurant spaces and eating manners, that most of us communicate with (and are being communicated to) throughout our daily lives.
Given such centrality of food, there has lately been an increasing scholarly interest in topics at the intersection of communication and food studies. While initially confined to private, often feminine and certainly not academic discussions, in the last decades, food has been embraced as a worthwhile topic of study across the humanities and social sciences, from history to political studies and beyond (e.g. Scholliers 2007), suggesting a need for an international platform related to food and communication to discuss current developments, new ideas and make scholarly connections.
This conference, which comes out of the FoodKom Research Network, established in 2015 in Örebro University (Sweden), and a Communicating Food symposium at the University of Chester (UK) in September 2017, aims to bring together researchers that work in the areas of food and communication, be it academically or non-academically. It aims to establish a regular, biannual platform which will offer scholars space to share and discuss research at the intersection of communication and food studies, but also at the intersection of academic scholarship and professionals that work in the areas concerned with communicating food. Apart from academic papers, we would therefore like to invite papers that share a non-academic perspective to the world of food communication but that speak to the current issues related to food communication in any capacity. Furthermore, in order to explore ways through which food can be communicated, we encourage participants to communicate their research findings or ideas via various (creative) forms of communication, possibly going beyond “classic” academic presentations.
While we hope to host scholars from around the world, we would particularly like to encourage scholars from geographical areas where research into food and communication is in its emerging developmental stages to apply; to this end, we are seeking funding to support their participation, although if successful, this will be currently limited to scholars travelling from Europe (for more details see below). New and early career scholars with work in progress papers are also welcomed.
Themes
All topics at the intersection of food and communication and communication-related disciplines of any methodology, are welcome, covering all geographical areas and historic periods, such as, but not limited to:
- Food and the media (incl. film, newspapers, magazines, television etc.)
- Food and art / food as art
- Food and language
- Food advice and cookbooks
- Food and governmental discourse
- Communicating food through education / food and teaching (including teaching in schools from practical perspective)
- Professional communication related to food (e.g. chefs, restaurants)
- Semiotics of food
- Food and corporate discourse (advertising, marketing, etc.)
Keynote speakers
Professor Tania Lewis, RMIT University Melbourne
Tania Lewis is a world-renowned media and cultural studies scholar whose research broadly falls within two broad areas: green citizenship, ethical consumption and lifestyle politics; and global media formats and multiple media modernities, with a particular focus on South East Asia. Her publications include
Smart Living: Lifestyle Media and Popular Expertise and Telemodernities: Television and Transforming Lives in Asia (with Fran Martin and Wanning Sun).
Dr Stephanie Chambers, University of Glasgow
Stephanie Chambers holds an MRC/University of Glasgow Research Fellowship focusing on improving diet and effects of advertising and marketing on children. Previously, she worked on investigating sustainable and healthy food chains and public opinions on the causes of obesity and support for policies to address it.
Sheila Dillon and Dan Saladino, BBC Food programme
Sheila Dillon and Dan Saladino are best known as food journalist, producers, and presenters of the renowned Radio 4 BBC Food Programme through which they highlight and discusses a number of issues related to food in Britain and around the world, helping to establish food as a subject worth discussing critically. Dillon also received a number of awards for her work, including “100 Leading Influential Ladies” in 2010.
Abstract details
Abstracts should be submitted by the deadline stated below and must include an abstract (300 words without references) of the paper to be presented and a brief biographical note (50 words). If you would like to present in a non “traditional” format or your participation entirely depends on subsidy (see below under Travel and Accommodation) please let us know when you apply.
Deadline for abstracts: Friday, 16 March 2018 The deadline has now been extended to 23 March 2018 in solidarity with the striking colleagues at various British universities.
Authors notification: Friday, 6 April 2018
E-mail for submissions: foodcommunication@qmu.ac.uk
Associated costs Fee
Fee for conference attendance is £70 and will cover the cost of food and drink during the conference, including conference dinner on Thursday evening. If, however, you do not wish to attend the dinner, you will have a chance to opt out, and the cost will then be £50.
Travel and Accommodation
Travel and accommodation costs will need to be covered by participants themselves.
However, we managed to secure a grant from the Association for the Study of Food and Society to subsidise travel/accommodation/fee costs for scholars travelling from Europe for whom these costs would be an obstacle to attending the conference. We are currently able to support three scholars at the maximum value of 300 GBP each.
Priority will be given to scholars from countries that can demonstrate such circumstance, either due to lack of funding at home institutions, currency conversion issues or other relevant circumstance. Award will depend on quality of proposed abstract and individual circumstances.
An update on this will be sent at a later date to all those whose abstract have been accepted and they will have an opportunity to apply. The Committee’s decision will be final.
Local Organising Committee (Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh)
Dr Ana Tominc
Dr Rebecca Finkel
Dr Isidoropaolo Casteltrione
Mhairi Barrett
Please send any queries related to the conference to Dr Ana Tominc at atominc@qmu.ac.uk.
International conference advisory committee
Prof Angela Smith (University of Sunderland, UK)
Prof Goran Ericsson (Örebro University, Sweden)
Prof Mike Goodman (University of Reading, UK)
Prof David Machin (Örebro University, Sweden)
Dr Ana Tominc (Queen Margaret University Edinburgh, UK)
Dr Andreja Vezovnik (Ljubljana University, Slovenia)
Dr Francesco Buscemi (University IUAV Venice, Italy)
Dr Helen Andersson (Örebro University, Sweden)
Dr Ian Rasmussen (University of Chester, UK)
Dr Joanne Hollows (UK)
Dr Simon Roberts (University of Chester, UK))
Dr Tanja Kamin (University of Ljubljana, Slovenia)
Gwynne Mapes (University of Bern, Switzerland)
FoodAnthropology 