CASCA 2013: CFP - Food and Power

We have gotten some very interesting responses to our call for
participants, and we hope to further expand the panel.

If interested in joining this session contact Stephanie Hobbis at
steph.hobbis@gmail.com and Christine Jourdan at
christine.jourdan@concordia.ca

Please send us, as soon as possible (the CASCA registration deadline, March
1st, is approaching quickly) the following information: A working title for
your paper, an abstract (150 words) and details of your affiliation.

*Panel format:*

For this panel we are not looking for (nearly) finished papers; instead we
think of this session as a 'brain storming session,' or an informal
sharing
of ideas to determine common ground and concrete directions for further
inquiry. The intention is to continue this panel at next year's CASCA
Conference with finished/ publishable papers (for a special edition of a
journal or an edited volume).

If you are interested, please join us for this informal session. The
session will be structured as follows: After a few words of introduction
to
the topic of Food and Power, each participant will be invited to speak for
5 to 10 minutes on the paper they could write. In a second part of the
session, we will define the themes around which the session might be
organized during CASCA 2014.

*Panel description:*

In this session we intend to explore anthropological approaches to the
relationship between food and power. The importance of food in our daily
lives has been recognized widely, yet power relationships have largely
been
inferred rather than placed at the heart of our analysis. In particular,
there is a need to develop a better understanding of the processes,
settings and people that exert control through the manipulation
(intentionally or not) of food. Manipulation may occur through withdrawal,
restriction, giving, or simple control over menus (etc.). How do these
choices reflect in the relationships between those who hold control, and
those who are' at their mercy'? More concretely, we may ask diverse
questions such as: What kind of food choices do institutions (prisons,
schools, hospitals etc.) make and what are the power relationships implied
therein? To what extent and how do dietary recommendation or nutrition
guidelines assert power over consumers (and citizens)? What is the power
of
the food critics or of the sommelier, or the cook? And what about the lack
of power of the hungry and the power of donor agencies? Our aim is to
advance anthropological research into this relationship recognizing that
food closely intersects with our understandings of self, and our
positioning in a given context.
With best wishes,
Stephanie