Related Events
More Food for Thought
Those interested in cultural, sociological and historical perspectives on food and food justice may also be interested in the following events taking place at or near UC Davis in 2024-2025.
All events are open to the public.
Library Exhibit
Ongoing
Shields Library, Archives and Special Collections
View our library exhibit, Cooking Against the Grain, on display now. No registration required. View the online exhibit here.
Reading: Real Food, Real Facts
Offsite event: Thinking Food @ Omnivore Books in SF
Thursday, January 16, 6:30-7:30 p.m. Register here.
Omnivore Books, 3885A Cesar Chavez St, San Francisco
Professor Charlotte Biltekoff of Thinking Food joins Omnivore Books in San Fransisco for a reading of her new book out with UC Press, Real Food, Real Facts.
The Oven is Mother: Culinary Performance with Heidi Ross
Thursday, January 30, 4:00-5:00 p.m. Tickets available.
Wyatt Pavillion
Heidi Ross is a private chef and multidisciplinary artist who creates unique culinary experiences, soundscapes, and installations for private events, galleries, public and outdoor spaces. Joining Professor Pierpaolo Polzonetti with his graduate course Gastromusicology, Ross presents a performance at Wyatt Pavillion.
Co-Sponsored by the Department of Music
Book Launch: Kernels of Resistance
Thursday, January 23, 4:00-6:00 p.m. Tickets available.
Hybrid Event: Bowley 101, Zoom Registration
Book launch and action planning to support Mesoamerican food sovereignty with Professor Liza Grandia (UC Davis, Native American Studies)
Co-Sponsored by Native American Studies | Thinking Food | The Native Nest | Agricultural Sustainability Institute | Indigenous Research Center of the Americas | Hemispheric Institute of the Americas | Department of Anthropology
Book Talk: Eating While Black
With Professor Psyche A. Williams-Forson
Tuesday, February 18, 4:00-7:00 p.m. Register here.
Hart Hall, 3201. Reception to follow.
Psyche A. Williams-Forson is one of our leading thinkers about food in America. In Eating While Black, she offers her knowledge and experience to illuminate how anti-Black racism operates in the practice and culture of eating.
Book Launch: Real Food, Real Facts
Tuesday, February 4, 4:30-7:30 p.m. Register here.
Hosted at the Manetti Shrem Museum
Join us for an engaging evening featuring American Studies and Darrell Corti Endowed Professor in Food Wine and Culture, Charlotte Biltekoff. Opening remarks from the Graduate Food Studies Reading Group, Elizabeth McQueen (Postdoctoral Fellow), Stace Baran (Ph.D. Candidate, English). Following her talk, Biltekoff will be joined in conversation by acclaimed author and scholar Julie Guthman (Agrarian Dreams, Weighing In, The Problem with Solutions), known for her critical insights into food justice, knowledge politics and capitalism. Light refreshments will be served following the conversation.
Organized by the UC Davis Mellon Foundation Sawyer Seminar, Thinking Food at the Intersections. Co-sponsored by the Manetti Shrem Museum and UC Davis Library.
Winter Colloquium: Reclaiming our Food Narratives as a Social Justice Practice
Friday-Saturday, March 14 & 15. Registration Opens Soon!
Reclaiming and revaluing ancestral pathways to health and well-being are at the center of today’s social justice practice by Black, Indigenous, and Latinx folks. The need to stage these conversations at this time is critical. Join us for conversations hosted at the Student Farm.
Past Events
Colloquium: Reimagining the Past Through Food Justice
Friday, December 6 and Saturday, December 7. Waitlist only.
This two-day colloquium approaches the history of food—both as a scholarly discipline and public discourse—through the lens of food justice.
Savor: Open Kitchens
Transforming Food Service through Community, Culture, and Ethical Leadership
Thursday, December 5, 5:30-7:30 p.m. Register here.
Robert Mondavi Institute for Wine and Food Science, Sensory Theatre and online via Zoom.
Panel discussion among three visionary chefs who are leading change in the food service industry through transparency, labor justice, and storytelling through food.
Presented by the UC Davis Library and the Robert Mondavi Institute for Wine and Food Science
Graduate Reading Group
Wednesday, December 4, 4-6 p.m. Sign up here.
Led by Leslie Geathers, Thinking Food GSR
In the Shadow of Slavery: Africa’s Botanical Legacy in the Atlantic World
By Judith Carney
Screening Food
Friday, November 22, 4-7 p.m. Sign up here.
Creuss Theater 1002
Como agua para chocolate (1992)
Alfonso Arau
Graduate Reading Group
Wednesday, November 20, 4-6 p.m. Sign up here.
Led by Elizabeth McQueen, Thinking Food postdoc
Author in attendance
Real Food, Real Facts: Processed Food and the Politics of Knowledge
by Charlotte Biltekoff
Elevated and Gentrified: Tacos in the
Age of Digital Nomads
Wednesday, November 13th, 3 p.m.
912 Sproul Hall
Professor Ignacio Sánchez Prado, Jarvis Thurston and Mona Van Duyn Professor in the Humanities Washington University, St Louis
Presented by the Department of Spanish & Portuguese
Graduate Reading Group
Wednesday, November 6, 3:00-5:00 p.m. Sign up here.
Led by Stace Baran, Thinking Food GSR
Moving Crops and the Scales of History
by Francesca Bray, Barbara Hahn, John Bosco Lourdusamy and Tiago Saraiva
Cultural Memory: Resurging Traditional Ecological Knowledge in Mezcal
Wednesday, November 6, 5:30 p.m.
UC Davis Robert Mondavi Institute for Wine and Food Science, Sensory Theater
Join us for a tasting and workshop on Oaxacan mezcal production practices with Fabiola Santiago, founder of Mi Oaxaca. Sold out (waitlist only).