The Many Truths of Food and Nutrition

Join us for this lively, fast-paced webinar with critical nutrition scholars Alissa Overend and Jennifer Brady, as they unpack the contextual nature of “truth” when it comes to food.

2021 ASFS-AFHVS-CAFS-SAFN Joint Virtual Conference

Just Food because it is never just food

June 9–15, 2021

REGISTRATION NOW OPEN!

Online conference registration is available here. We have multiple options for registration, in an attempt to make this conference as inclusive and just as possible. For those who can afford to pay full price, we ask that you do so to help offset costs for organizing the conference.

Questions? E-mail us at foodconference2021@nyu.edu

In this most unusual time, four academic organizations engaged in food studies are hosting a virtual conference centered on the theme of Food Justice. The title, Just Food: because it is never just food, highlights how food is ensconced in systems of exclusion, oppression, and power. We seek presentations* that reveal cultural and historical entanglements of food with social justice. We encourage scholars to examine the production, distribution, and consumption of food while keeping in mind power differentials in local and global systems. We invite submissions that reveal and/or seek to challenge the systemic injustices of the industrial and alternative food systems that marginalize the food histories, practices, and experiences of diverse communities including Indigenous, Black, and People of Color. We also seek papers that highlight the ways people use food for pleasure and autonomy. The conference hopes to make connections between diverse perspectives, to center historically marginalized voices, and to work towards building a greater understanding of how to achieve food justice on Turtle Island (North America) and globally.

Broad areas of inquiry may include: 

  • Food socialization practices in public, private, and institutional settings
  • Culinary appropriation
  • The interconnectedness between the Global South and Global North
  • Agroecology and food sovereignty 
  • Global and local food movements and the quest for justice and sustainability
  • The role of racism, colonialism, and imperialism in cuisines of the world
  • Indigenous food sovereignty and Black food sovereignty
  • Repair, resistance, and reparations in food systems
  • Health implications of unequal access to food
  • Migration, exile, and food access/security
  • The exploitation of food workers within Capitalism
  • Eating and ethics 
  • Agriculture, economics, labor
  • Lived experiences of climate catastrophe 
  • Food systems governance 
  • Pedagogy of food justice in and out of the classroom 
  • Policy and advocacy 
  • Intersectionality (race, class, gender, ableism, creed, etc.) 
  • Media representation of cuisines and food justice 

 

Nominations are now open for the 2021 CAFS Awards!  

 Each year CAFS has two award categories to recognize the contributions and work of our members. This year we are accepting nominations for the: 

  • Student Paper Award in Food Studies  
  • Research Award for Excellence in Food Studies 

Please send nominations for either award to CafsAdmin [at] foodstudies.ca

Nomination emails will be forwarded to the Awards Committee. You are welcome to nominate yourself or someone else.  

Submission deadline: April 15th, 2021 

Notification of awards: May 6th, 2021 

Student Paper Award in Food Studies 

Launched in 2011, this award was created to recognize scholarly excellence and encourage participation by undergraduate and graduate students. The 2021 award includes a $200 prize, a one-year CAFS membership, and complimentary conference registration. The following are the guidelines for submission: 

  • The paper must be student-authored and on any of a wide variety of disciplinary or transdisciplinary food issues; 
  • Co-authored papers by two students are also permitted, if both students agree that they made comparable contributions to the paper; 
  • The paper may have been written for a course, a major research project, or a thesis or comprehensive exam; and 
  • Written papers should be 4,500 to 6,000 words (excluding bibliography); 

Research Award for Excellence in Food Studies 

The purpose of this award is to recognize CAFS members who have made research contributions that have had a substantial impact in programs and policies affecting the food system through their work in universities, colleges, government agencies, NGOs, consultancies, etc. To nominate someone, please submit the following: 

  • a cover letter from the principal nominator(s) that details the nominee’s contributions and makes the case for why the candidate deserves the award 
  • the nominee’s current CV 
  • two or more letters of support (at least one from a CAFS member) 
  • selected publications, student or peer evaluations, and/or other professionally relevant materials (optional)