FEAST !

As part of the university's 'Resonate Festival' to mark Coventry City of Culture 2021, we ran a series of activities & events between November 2021 and April 2022:

• A 'Feast Food Fair' in association with Berkswell Church and Warwick's My-Parish research network - building on the medieval custom of 'church ales', St John the Baptist hosted a weekend of locally produced specialities and reflections on the relationship between food, feasting and community (25-26 March 2022)
• In a 'Food Extravaganza' for the Resonate Campus Festival, we offered 'Roman Cooking' classes for kids, a 'Dinner Table' installation and a panel debate on the 'Future of Hospitality'
• A 'Feast Food Festival' in partnership with representatives of the region's hospitality sector and artisans - showcasing the history, preparation and meanings of dishes and beverages used for celebrations by different cultures in Coventry and Warwickshire (November - December 2021)

For full details please visit the FEAST! website.

FOOD ON THE MOVE
Friday 9 July 2021, 5-7 pm

This 'Food Cultures' public online event - co-organized by food scholars Eleanor Barnett, Beat Kümin & Katrina Moseley - brought together academics, industry representatives, and members of the general public to discuss the ways in which fast-moving food chains have been affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. Since we spent the best part of a year in our homes, the demand for ‘click-to-buy’ food delivery services has never been greater. We are only starting to think about the huge impact of this behavioural change on the food industry, society and culture more broadly.

The virtual meeting consisted of academic talks and a panel discussion, with members of the general public invited to reflect on their food experiences with reference to the theme of ‘food on the move’, both in an online survey and during the discussion itself - Event Programme.

We are currently processing the video recording & analysing survey responses on how your food / drink habits have changed since the pandemic began.

'Food, Religion and Writing'

Friday 11 June 2021

A 'Food Cultures'-sponsored virtual examination of the relations between faith and food studies, co-organized by José-Ricardo Aguilar González & Beat Kümin with participants from across the university & beyond.

PART I involved a reading group discussion of extracts from Food, Religion and Communities in Early Modern Europe (2019) with author Christopher Kissane [flyer]. Warwick users can revisit the session on MS Stream.

PART II saw a public debate with Mark Bratton (rector of St John the Baptist church, Berkswell), Giulia Champion (IAS-IATL), Elizabeth Dowler (Warwick Emeritus Professor & member of the Food Ethics Council) & Christopher Kissane (historian & writer) [flyer]. The video recording is now freely available on the University's YouTube channel.

_{Pics: Bloomsbury & Cjorsch 2010}

Food and Drink History Reading Group

This reading group is organised and run by postgraduate students and postdoctoral researchers in the History Department at Warwick. One session is held each month during term time. Each session is lead by a different member of the group, discussing important texts about the history of food. We welcome students and scholars from different disciplines to join in our discussions.

Warwick Food History Conference 2021 (17-18 June 2021)

'"You Are What You Eat": Food and Identity From The Middle Ages to the Modern', featured 23 papers on a wide range of themes / regions / periods and a keynote by Jeffrey Pilcher on the global invention of Pilsner beer - for a full programme and further information go to the conference website.

FOOD AND DRINK CULTURES THROUGH THE AGES

A webinar with Susan Flavin (Trinity College, Dublin), Allen J. Grieco (Villa I Tatti, Florence) & Peter Scholliers (VUB, Brussels), moderated by Beat Kümin (Warwick)

23 March 2021

 
What are the continuities and changes in production, distribution and consumption since the Middle Ages? When did processes like urbanization, industrialization and globalization start to affect people's diets? Where are food and drink studies today? These are some of the issues explored in this panel discussion involving three leading voices with complementary expertise. The video recording is now accessible on YouTube.
 

Banner: extract from Willem Claesz. Heda, ‘Still Life with a Gilt Cup’ (1635). Rijksmuseum Amsterdam.