Call for Papers: The Twelfth Annual Joint Annual Meeting of the Association for the Study of Food and Society (ASFS), Agriculture, Food and Human Values Society (AFHVS) with the Society for the Anthropology of Food and Nutrition (SAFN)

Food in Bloom: Cross Pollination and Cultivation of Food Systems, Cultures and Methods

The Twelfth Annual Joint Annual Meeting of the Association for the Study of Food and Society (ASFS), Agriculture, Food and Human Values Society (AFHVS) with the Society for the Anthropology of Food and Nutrition (SAFN)

June 2 to June 6, 2010

Hosted by Indiana University, Bloomington, IN

Organizer and Local Arrangements:
Richard Wilk, Indiana University  wilkr@indiana.edu

Program Committee Chairs:
Beth Forrest,  Culinary Institute of America  b_forres@culinary.edu  and Alice Julier, Chatham University  apjulier@gmail.com

Society for the Anthropology of Food and Nutrition:
Janet Chrzan, University of Pennsylvania  jchrzan@sas.upenn.edu

From when seeds are first planted in the ground, many factors affect a harvest.   Food systems are shaped by everything from the weather and the soil to equipment, human skills, and social interventions from community rules, governments, migrations, and strife. Likewise, after harvest, the distribution, preparation, and consumption of foodstuffs are all by individuals acting according to cultural and social expectations. Thus, it can be said that food is cross pollinated by a collection of ideas and conceptions all the way through the agriculture and food system. A similar cross pollination also characterizes agriculture and food studies as intellectual domains. Food is inherently cross-disciplinary, requiring scholarly flexibility and integration.  Our research and writing becomes more robust by manifesting cross pollination  of  theories and methods. Furthermore, students of food must recognize the complex nexus of material and social components that make food, like sex, uniquely interesting. Expanding and embracing the practical, everyday aspects of food systems nourishes the field and leads to new methodological and ethical questions with broader applicability.  As Anthropologist Mary Douglas asserted, "a radical approach to food's place in civilization would require the whole range of food's social uses to be considered." For this conference, we call for papers that span and cross the sciences, humanities, and social sciences, while also taking the practical knowledge of food system citizens seriously.

The conference seeks to celebrate the interconnectedness of food studies and to promote the understanding of food and agriculture. Although our organizations encourage a broad spectrum of topics at our conferences, we are enthusiastically encouraging papers and sessions that speak directly to the theme. We also encourage full panel submissions and roundtable sessions on all topics related to the social, cultural, political, and ethical organization of food and agriculture.

The Cultivation & Sustainability of Food Systems; Issues of Boundary Crossing: Migration, Globalization, Interpretation; Class, Gender, Race; The Inter-connectedness of Agriculture, Food, & Pedagogy; The Society for Anthropology of Food and Nutrition will be joining the conference for the first time.  We welcome abstracts for papers, posters, and panels on all aspects of food, nutrition, and agriculture, including those related to:

Art, media, and literary analyses
Change & development
Culture & cultural geography
Ethics & philosophy
Food safety & risk
Gender and ethnicity
Globalization of agriculture and food
History
Inequality, access, security, & social justice
Knowledge
Local food systems
Pedagogy
Politics, policies, & governance in national & global contexts
Research methods, practices & issues
Social action & social movements
Sustainability
Science & technologies

FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THIS CONFERENCE, PLEASE ACCESS THIS LINK:

Food In Bloom Conference