EDIBLE BOUNDARIES: Food, Identity, and the Material Culture of Eating and Drinking

March 2026 - University of Warwick, UK

From sumptuary laws in medieval Europe to edible taboos among Islamic and Jewish communities, eating choices have historically reinforced boundaries. Yet food also facilitated unexpected connections: culinary hybridities can show the different faces of exploitation, colonial violence and resilience. Food-related feelings, like taste and disgust, are socially constructed and reflect power dynamics. Today, these issues persist: quinoa’s globalization raises ethical questions about Indigenous rights, while food deserts in urban centres highlight class and racial disparities in access to nutrition. From food being used to mould ideal bodies in 20th-century diet culture to eating the body of Christ through the eucharist and kitchen work being a gendered activity, food practices are key in almost every aspect of human life.

This conference aims to ground theoretical discussions on food, production, eating and drinking into concrete spaces and social actors. In a world grappling with cultural fragmentation and ecological precarity, food remains a universal language—one that carries the flavours of history and the seeds of change. Edible Boundaries invites participants to savour this complexity, exploring how the simple act of eating reveals the deepest layers of human experience.

We aim to bring together scholars working in the humanities and social sciences leading new conversations about food and drink. Selected contributions may be published as an edited collection in the Warwick Series in the Humanities (with Routledge). 

We accept proposals for 20-min papers touching on, but not limited to, the following topics:

• Medieval guild feasts and modern culinary tourism as performances of identity  

• The role of food in colonial conquest and its contemporary reckonings
• Decentring global food histories 

• Gender, labour, and the material culture of kitchens across eras
• The materiality of food, consumption and consumerism

• Climate anxiety and the revival of historical preservation techniques  

• The paradox of “authenticity” in globalized foodscapes  

• Food heritage, national cuisines and nationalism in the 21st century  

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Organizers: Jingyang Xu & Eloisa Ocando-Thomas