Scarborough Fare: Global Foodways and Local Foods in a Transnational City

ASFS/AFHVS/CAFS Annual Meeting and Conference, June 22-25, 2016

The University of Toronto Scarborough (UTSC) is pleased to host the Joint 2016 Annual Meetings and Conference of the Association for the Study of Food and Society; the Agriculture, Food, and Human Values Society; and the Canadian Association for Food Studies – the first time the three organizations have met together. The conference theme, “Scarborough Fare: Global Foodways and Local Foods in a Transnational City,” emphasizes the changing nature of food production, distribution, and consumption as people, goods, foods and culinary and agricultural knowledge move over long distances and across cultural and national borders. It explores the development of cities and their transnational marketplaces where new and old migrants, entrepreneurs and emerging migrant-origin middle classes settle in suburbs such as Scarborough, rather than in older downtown districts such as the historic Toronto Chinatown along Spadina. To understand global and local food systems, we must give due attention to migrants, whether from rural districts or from cities, for they have historically provided knowledge and labour necessary to feed societies, while also altering the foodways of long-time natives of the areas where they settle. We invite participants to examine the role of mobile people as workers, entrepreneurs, and innovators in agriculture, culinary infrastructure, and food preparation and consumption. Submissions may also consider the long distance movement of people, culinary knowledge, and foods as contributors to projects of colonization, sovereignty and creators of global inequalities. The conference will feature cultural events, art exhibits, and a banquet that highlight the diverse communities and cuisines of Scarborough and the Greater Toronto Area. Students and emerging scholars in particular are invited to submit proposals for a pre-conference to be held on June 21 and sponsored by CAFS.

 

Host

The University of Toronto Scarborough (UTSC) offers distinctive programs that attract students from across North America and around the world, including Critical Development Studies, Environmental Sciences, Centre for Ethnography, and Culinaria Research Centre (CRC). As the University of Toronto’s hub for food studies research, CRC is dedicated to documenting, preserving, and studying the world’s culinary diversity. CRC is currently hosting the prestigious Connaught Cross-Cultural/Cross-Divisional Seminar as part of the international collaborative research project, City Food, which seeks to study of migrants’ contributions to urban food systems. The Culinaria Kitchen Teaching Laboratory will host a number of exciting demonstrations during the conference.

 

Organizations

The Association for the Study of Food and Society (ASFS) was founded in 1985 with the goals of promoting interdisciplinary approaches to food, society, and culture. It has continued that mission by holding annual meetings and through the publication of the journal, Food, Culture & Society, which has received awards for design and content.

The Agriculture, Food, and Human Values Society (AFHVS) was formed in 1987 and promotes interdisciplinary research and scholarship on the values, visions, and structures underlying contemporary food systems, nationally and internationally. Through conferences and its journal, Agriculture and Human Values, it explores alternative visions of more democratic and decentralized food systems that sustain local and regional communities, cultures, and habitats.

The Canadian Association for Food Studies (CAFS) was founded in 2005 by academics and professionals from governmental and community organizations interested in promoting interdisciplinary scholarship in the broad area of food systems: Food policy, production, distribution, and consumption. Its journal, Canadian Food Studies/La Revue canadienne des études sur l’alimentation, is open access on the association website.

 

Contact

For all inquiries, please email culinaria@utsc.utoronto.ca

 

Refunds

Refunds will be considered up to May 22, 2016 and are subject to a $75
administrative fee. No refunds will be considered after May 22, 2016.