The International Conference on Foodways and Heritage is organized by The Chinese University of Hong Kong (Department of Anthropology), in collaboration with the UNESCO Chair “Safeguarding and Promotion of Cultural Food Heritages” (University François-Rabelais of Tours, France). The conference will be held
3rd-5th January, 2013 at the the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR.
Foodways is considered an important cultural marker of identity in societies, and it has provided a medium for the understanding of social relations, family and kinship, class and consumption, gender ideology, cultural symbolism, etc. Nowadays, much scholarly attention has been on the socio-political construction of foodways; in particular, there is a growing interest in considering foodways an intangible heritage reflecting the significance of being part of people’s life in the era of globalization. With the understanding that some ingredients and culinary skills became more difficult to be inherited and sustained, the possibility of losing them should not be overlooked. Traditional cuisine has been mostly changed or even disappeared, and some culinary skills are known among a handful of people. So, are we going to witness the dying of traditional foodways? Or, are we going to keep it documented in the last minute because this is part of our general support of cultural diversity?
This conference looks at the politics of foodways and heritage, and investigates how different kinds of food are produced, sustained and inherited while at the same time how they are preserved as intangible heritage for various reasons.
The organizers seek papers that examine what foodways is considered a kind of local/national heritage, why people think foodways can be heritage for preservation, and how it has been culturally invented, conceptualized, and marketed in various societies. They invite scholars who are conducting research on foodways in the context of heritage politics on local/regional levels, looking into issues such as transnational relations, globalization and localization, ecology and natural resources management, transformation of traditions and technical interventions etc. Papers should provide an ethnographic description and analysis of the preservation of food as a kind of heritage at different levels and how they interact with the social and political complexities in specific cultural contexts. The conference is intended to be interdisciplinary and we welcome different disciplines, such as anthropology, sociology, history, and gender studies. Topics including the production of food and cuisine in the following areas are welcomed:
• Agriculture and fishery heritage
• Governmental policy on food heritage preservation
• Re-invention of traditional food in restaurant and eatery
• Marketing and management of traditional/nostalgic food
• Rural/urban, village/city, local/global relations affecting traditional food production
All abstract and paper will be in English and the deadline for submitting a 500-word abstract/proposal is 30 April, 2012. If your paper is accepted by the organizing committee, you are required to submit your full-length paper by the end of October 2012.
Ms. Jiting LUO
Humanities Building, New Asia College,
The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, N.T.
Hong Kong
Email: jiting.luo@gmail.com