Recap of Inaugural Meeting of the Critical Food Studies Network
By Maria Murad, co-founder of the Critical Food Studies Network
The inaugural ‘Critical Food Studies’ Network event kicked off at the EPA Science Centre at Lincoln College on November 20th, 2024. The seminar featured two student speakers working on research and extracurricular projects that take differing approaches to critical food studies.
The first speaker, Aryehi Bhushan (a co-founder of the Network), is a second-year DPhil candidate at the Faculty of English. She is writing a thesis on consumption and ‘consumability’ in contemporary Anglophone Indian women’s novels from 1980 to the present. Her presentation analyzed the way in which Anita Desai problematizes the dichotomies of vegetarianism/non-vegetarianism, Hinduism/Islam and Hindi/Urdu prose in her novel “In Custody”. Bhushan focused specifically on the ways in which the author constructs a resistive carnivorous politics to push back against an established socio-political Hindu (and Hindi) hegemony.
The other speaker, Roland Chen, is a 2nd year DPhil at the Oxford Internet Institute. He is not only an academic but an artist and trained chef from le Cordon Bleu in Tokyo, Japan. His research focuses on wearable technology and its relationship to body and place, and his food-based art practice centers on cyborging, simulation, and our porousness with the outside. His presentation gave an overview of his current thinking around his art practice, which focuses on food art such as reverse mukbanging, performance art, and cooking in professional kitchens around the world.
After both speakers, there was time for discussion and questions where attendees asked Bhushan about the role of gender both in India and the U.S.’s political discourse on meat consumption. Chen was also asked about how his food art relates to his DPhil research, and how he tries to blur disciplinary and artistic lines within the academy and beyond. Both presentations gave a different view of ‘Critical Food Studies’ but led to interesting discussions connecting both projects. This first seminar highlights the kind of interdisciplinary and collaborative work the Networks hopes to achieve throughout the rest of the year. If you are interested in joining, please sign up for the mailing list here. We plan to host more student and staff speakers, reading groups, movie nights, and a one-day conference throughout the academic year.
Critical Food Studies Network is part of TORCH Student Network
