Boys eat during a free breakfast in New York, winter 1969. Photograph: Bev Grant/Getty Images
Members of this caucus come together to pursue understandings of food consumption and production within historical, social, and ethical contexts. While food studies is not a new field and has existed in the academy in different spaces, especially with links to anthropology, political ecology and history, members of this caucus are most interested in charting the development of “critical food studies.” By this we refer to scholarship that marks ways in which food is used to frame a variety of social issues, a critical mode to examine relations of power, membership and belonging, social cultures, and diasporas. The overarching goal of this caucus is to promote the study of food in all its complexities and by means of collaborative and shared ethical practices both within and beyond the academy.
The members of the Caucus come together to:
- Bring together scholars researching and writing about contemporary issues in the realm of food, from its production, consumption, and distribution to its ecological impacts and social media representations
- Promote conversations on the past, present, and futures of Critical Food Studies in hopes of creating new spaces to share, collaborate, and discuss important questions and anxieties that persist
- Build relations of mutual support and intellectual exchange based on a common concern with ways in which food conveys social membership and belonging
- Establish a collective presence in the ASA to raise the visibility of critical food studies scholarship and its relevance to students and practitioners of American Studies.
- Share best practices in food studies research and teaching.
All are welcomed and encouraged to join the Critical Food Studies Caucus! Our membership includes scholars from across a wide range of institutions and experiences, including university faculty and staff, graduate students, independent scholars, and activists, as well as working professionals from outside the academy. The Critical Food Studies Caucus strives to be an inclusive environment.
Annual ASA Conference
Scholarly Panels: The Caucus solicits and arranges sessions related to food studies for presentation at the annual conference. For the 2024 Annual Meeting, we are sponsoring a special Q&A session with Curtis Chin and ASA past-president Sharon P. Holland.
Business Meeting: Participation in the meeting, where plans for the next year are addressed, is open to any interested member of the ASA. The agenda is posted in advance. As part of the Caucus’s activities, we also maintain ties with the leadership of the ASA.
Educational and Scholarly Resources
The Caucus provides resources to promote teaching, research, and publication in food studies, broadly defined. We plan to hold annual meetings, create small working and reading groups, share a dynamic listserv that documents the field’s news and happenings, builds connections across institutions and between academics and practitioners, and opens a channel to promote and highlight the ethical study of food cultures.
To get the latest updates, subscribe to the Critical Food Studies Caucus Listserv managed via Google Groups.
