PROPOSAL TYPE
Workshop
SEEKING
- Seeking Additional Presenters
- Seeking General Feedback and Interest
- Seeking Specific Expertise
RELATED TOPICS
- Material Culture
- Memory
- Museums/Exhibits
- Oral History
- Place
ABSTRACT
The love of food is universal. Food expresses culture, race, ethnicity, religion, and geography. Some historical interpreters have successfully used colonial foodways and cooking demonstrations at sites of enslavement to break down racist ideologies and engage visitors in honest conversations about slavery in the U.S. This workshop will discuss the unique role food can play in educating the public about hard history and provide examples of programs and interpretive tools to implement foodways-centered education at your site.
DESCRIPTION
I would like to know if a workshop is the best venue for this topic and if I could recruit one or two more food focused public historians who can provide examples of foodways-centered tactics to discuss historical inequalities (race, class, gender, religion, ethnicity). I would like participants in this workshop to leave with knowledge of how to use food in discussing hard history at their sites. Also, do I broaden the topic to include other racial/ethnic groups and recruit other workshop leaders, or turn it into a traditional panel where we all share case studies?
If you have a direct offer of assistance, sensitive criticism, or wish to pass along someone’s contact information confidentially, please get in contact directly: Kelley Deetz, [email protected]
ALL FEEDBACK AND OFFERS OF ASSISTANCE SHOULD BE SUBMITTED BY JULY 10, 2024. If you have general ideas or feedback to share, please feel free to use the comments feature below.
This is really interesting given how many public history sites have historical cooking demonstrations or food centered celebrations. There’s also a universe of agricultural public history sites that tie in to food traditions. A workshop could work if you are thinking you can work with interpreters and others to develop more engaging and illuminating foodways events.
I think this is a great topic. I would urge you to think about a format that will allow participants to share both best and worst practices. I think there would be keen interest from people who want some practical guidance on how to use foodways to reach a broad audience.
As a person who absolutely uses foodways and the interpretation of those foodways to bridge gaps and educate, I love this. I would recommend reaching out to Michelle Moon as well. I could also serve as a panelist talking about how I have used the foods of the enslaved community to have these difficult conversations and the breakthroughs cooking has supported. I think this is also a way to look at how programs focused around foods (Equitable Dinners, etc.) are used to create a larger sense of community over shared meals–there is a past and present thread you can use with this topic on how we address the issues of today AND the issues of the past. I look forward to seeing this proposal come to fruition