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>
> Workshop
>
> Centre for Migration and Diaspora Studies, SOAS, University of
> London; Food Studies Centre, SOAS,University of London; Sussex
> Centre for Migration Research, University of Sussex
>
> Call for Papers
>
> “Food and Migration”
>
> 1 February 2009
>
> School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London
>
> It is increasingly recognised within anthropology and other
> disciplines that the study of ‘foodways’ is important in
> understanding the ways in which people construct their ideas of who
> and what they are. However, the ways in which this plays itself out
> in the context of migration has not received much attention thus far.
>
> For migrants, food and drink have a key role in maintaining kin,
> social and cultural ties brought from other places; in building new
> groups conceived of as based on cultural or social identity brought
> from elsewhere or based on new ties forged in one’s new home; and
> in creating divisions, both among immigrants themselves and between
> migrants and ‘host’ groups.
>
> Over time, migrant foodways are altered through contact with those
> of other migrants and of groups already living in a place, as well
> as in the context of the availability of different foodstuffs.
> New, syncretic foodways are constructed which reflect new social,
> economic and cultural configurations. The response of natives and
> other migrants to incoming foodways plays a part in this process
> and relates to processes of identity construction among these
> groups as well as within an immigrant group.
>
> As these processes play themselves out, they create the potential
> for deliberate statements, through foodways, of continuity or
> change. Individuals or groups may draw on new notions about
> appropriate feeding, offering and sharing relationships involving
> food and drink, and about the appropriate elements and structure of
> eating and drinking events, to alter relationships within the
> migrant group as well as to generate new relations outside the
> group. They may also cling to existing foodways and the
> relationships which go with them to resist change. These complex
> processes are likely to lead to tensions within a migrant group,
> particularly between generations.
>
> Foodways are not normally static. However, with migration,
> foodways have a tendency to become ‘fossilized’ and to become
> ‘identity markers’. They take on a symbolic role – not only for
> migrants but also, to some extent, for host groups and members of
> other immigrant groups. For an immigrant group, this may lead to
> the consumption of ritual meals representing cultural, religious or
> group identity on certain occasions. For host groups and other
> migrants, too, these ‘marker’ foods may, in their consumption at
> home or elsewhere, play a role in the construction of their own
> syncretic identity.
>
> Our understanding of the process of migration, of identity
> construction, and of the relations between different groups, both
> migrant and host groups, can benefit greatly by peering through the
> lens of food and drink. However, there has not as yet been any
> systematic attempt to compare and contrast the ways in which food
> is playing a role in the process of migration among different
> migrant groups, and in relations between groups. The role of
> migrant foods in the construction of identity among natives and
> other migrant groups is also an area of research which has received
> little attention.
>
> There are marked differences in the ways in which different
> individuals as well as members of different migrant groups approach
> migration and manage it. Whilst some individuals, and some groups,
> appear to have a conscious intent to maintain their identity,
> sometimes through a deliberate strategy of creating different
> levels of identity, others wish to integrate fully, while many
> others – perhaps the majority – develop a strategy of identity
> retention and creation, as it were, ‘on the hoof’. These
> strategies will be reflected in food-related behaviour.
>
> We hope that this conference will both provide a context for
> sharing existing knowledge about migrant foodways and also an
> opportunity to discuss the possibility of future research carried
> out on a collaborative basis among different migrant groups to one
> country and/or from one country or group of countries, including
> potential sources of funding for such research. In planning such
> future research, we would welcome the collaboration of scholars
> from other disciplines, such as nutrition.
>
> We therefore welcome participation not only from those presenting
> papers but also from scholars who would be interested in the
> possibility of collaborating in planning future research.
>
> Please send paper proposals and any enquiries to the convenors:
>
> Monica Janowski, Department of Anthropology, University of Sussex
> ([log in to unmask])
>
> Paru Raman, Department of Anthropology and Sociology, School of
> Oriental and African Studies,University of London ([log in to unmask])
>
> P Before printing, please think about the environment
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