Critical Food Studies Reading Group: Disordered Eating
Monday 3 March 2025, 5-6:30pm
Lincoln EPA Centre, Lady Abraham House, Museum Road, Oxford OX1 3PX
Free but registration is required. If you plan on attending this event, please rsvp here.
In our second reading group of the term, Helena Aeberli will be leading a discussion about disordered eating. This reading and discussion group will consider approaches to the study of eating disorders in the humanities. We will discuss cultural approaches which see eating disorders as manifestations of cultural forces, rather than individual pathologies, as well as considering how historians and critics have approached disordered eating in the past. The conversation will range from the ancient world to the present day, from hysteria to Ozempic. It will be of interest to those with an interest in food, sickness, the body, and gender, as well as those researching eating disorders.
Suggested readings:
Susan Bordo, ‘Anorexia Nervosa: Psychopathology as the Crystallisation of Culture’ in Immaculate Bodies (1993).
Caroline Walker Bynum, ‘Food as Control of Self’ in Holy Feast and Holy Fast: the religious significance of food to medieval women (1987).
Emmeline Clein, ‘Doctors Order Disordered Eating: Are New Weight-Loss Drugs the Cure or the Disease?’ in Lux Magazine (2024).
To receive copies of the readings, please rsvp here.
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