The University of Oregon's food studies research group and various other disciplines on campus are presenting several food-related discussions this spring – from the cultural politics of dietary health to the visual components of food.
The "Food in the Field Research Interest Group" events are being organized under the UO's Center for the Study of Women in Society.
The first events, on Friday, April 19, feature Charlotte Biltekoff, an assistant professor of American studies, and food science and technology, at the University of Califoria at Davis.
Her noon talk in Chapman 301 (the CHC Library) is "Researching Food History." The talk is open to students and Food in the Field mambers; RSVP to Jennifer Burns Levin, the Food in the Field organizer and instructor of literature in the Clark Honors College, at jlevin@uoregon.edu.
Biltekoff will then discuss "Eating Right: The Cultural Politics of Dietary Health" – the Food in the Field Visiting Scholar Lecture – at 3:30 p.m. in Room 111, Lillis Hall.
The next events, on Thursday, May 9, feature Canadian land artist, permaculture teacher, activist and writer Oliver Kellhammer and novelist Ruth Ozeki.
Kellhammer and Jennifer Burns Levin will have a 3 p.m. “fireside conversation” about Kellhamer's interventions in sites such as eroded railway ravines and disused city lots. He will explain how his process is "anti-monumental," slowly reintegrating into the ecological and cultural communities that form around them. The hourlong event will be in the Hendricks Hall Hearth Room (first floor).
Ozeki will appear at 6 p.m. in the EMU Fir Room for the presentation, “Too Many P’s? Personal, Political, Publics and Potatoes — A Conversation about the Politics of Food and Kinship." She will be joined by panelists Judith Eisen (Department of Biology), Kim Leval (executive director, Northwest Center for Alternatives to Pesticides), Jennifer Burns Levin (Clark Honors College) and Mary Wood (Department of English), and by moderator Joan Haran (CESAGEN collaborative research center at Cardiff University, Wales).
The final event, on May 31, will feature Nicola Camerlenghi, an assistant professor of art history at the UO, for “Food: Even the Eye Wants its Share.” The event – a discussion of food's visual component – will be at 2 p.m. in Hendricks Hall's Jane Grant Room.
Camerlenghi will talk about how Americans spend more time watching food shows on TV than eating or cooking. She will explore the historical, sensorial, cultural and nutritional implications of the shift.
- from the UO Center for the Study of Women in Society