a journal of research & art
By Sandra Carletti
Food and life experiences are inextricably linked. In this course, we will examine the ways in which literature uses food to represent and understand the human experience We will focus on the various symbolic functions of food associated with the images of cooking, eating, drinking, and feasting presented in these literary works.
By Erik Jönsson
As a number of scholars have noted, cultured (or “in vitro,” or “clean”) meat is, today, a confusing technology, shot through with ontological ambiguity. What cultured meat eventually could become, and what cultured meat is today, are both uncertain. Moreover, in making sense of cultured meat in relation to (particular forms of) contemporary veganism, cultural and technological processes visibly entangle.
Reviewed by Elizabeth Carter
A crucial wine debate swirls around the concept of terroir. The term can be approximately, and beautifully, thought of as “somewhereness.”
By Cristina Grasseni
Collective food procurement defines the production, distribution, and consumption of food with a participatory dimension: for example community gardens, but also new entrepreneurship based on urban agriculture, as well as broader projects governing food markets or allotments at municipal level.
By Olga Sezneva
I check myself in the mirror one last time. Black sweater, high neck, navy blue pants that you won’t see under my long apron. Dark-frame glasses. City smart, I’d say, no different from that mevrouw I saw selling gloves in E*.
Reviewed by Brittany Lehman
Historians often rely on a preponderance of evidence to stake their claims. In so doing, however, these scholars frequently get lost in the numbers and the trends, forgetting the individual. Jennifer Miller’s much-needed book shows readers that groups of people—even when they number in the millions—are made up of individuals, each of whom has unique experiences.
Reviewed by Philip Slavin
The history of food, both from the production and consumption side, has been arguably one of the most popular scholarly topics in social and economic history
Reviewed by Annie Jourdan
Callister’s book is an ambitious study as it examines the interplay of public opinion, national sentiment, and foreign policy during the period 1785-1815, not only in one, but in three countries.
Reviewed by Sabrina Papazian
Verdery highlights the vulnerability of her emotions and experiences by sharing fieldnotes where she describes feelings of hopelessness and despair during particular stressful moments in her ethnographic endeavors. She also documents her emotions as she carefully read her secret file in 2010. This introspective dive into Verdery’s psyche makes her research experience and writing relatable.
