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Reimagining the Past through Food Justice

Colloquium: December 6 and 7, 2024

As a tool for storytelling, inspiration, or cultural preservation, we will explore how greater knowledge of the past can become a powerful avenue for upsetting dominant narratives about food historically and today.

Join the waitlist!

Join us for a two-day colloquium with speakers, chef demonstrations, and shared meals.

Program

Friday, Dec. 6, 10:30 a.m.-6:00 p.m.

  • Opening Remarks
  • Panel 1: Food Networks: Extraction, Expansion, Exchange (Marcy Norton, UPenn; Shantel George, University of Glasgow; Andrés Reséndez, UC Davis)
  • Lunch – Plating and Speculating Historical Foods, Served by Chef Martin Draluck (Black Pot Supper Club)
  • Panel 2: Food Justice and the Future of Food Histories (Paul Freedman, Yale University; Jeffrey Pilcher, University of Toronto; Enrique Ochoa, Cal State LA)
  • Welcome Reception

Saturday, Dec. 7, 9:00 a.m.-3:00 p.m.

  • Panel 3: Narrating Food’s Past: Diaspora, Immigration and Globalization (Martin Draluck, chef; Fabiola Santiago, mezcal educator and activist; Ebony Bailey, filmmaker)
  • Lunch – Handheld Pies and Inside Stories
  • Reclaiming History in the Kitchen (Cooking Demonstration, chefs Saqib Keval and Norma Listman)
  • Closing Roundtable: Reimagining the Past through Food Justice

Tickets are limited. Please register with the intention to attend the entire two-day colloquium. A detailed agenda will be announced in the weeks before the event.

Page from the Florentine Codex, (1545-1577) with red page edge and black script in Spanish and Náhuatl. Illustrations of meals being served.
The Florentine Codex, written by the Franciscan friar Bernardino de Sahagún in collaboration with Nahua scribes between 1545 and 1577, is a document in Spanish and Náhuatl that provides a detailed account of Mexica culture and society, including a rich account of indigenous ingredients and culinary practices. A key resource for understanding pre-Columbian food systems, it preserves indigenous knowledge that might otherwise have been lost due to the effects of colonization.