From June 22 to 25, University of Toronto history faculty on the Scarborough campus will host the Joint 2016 Annual Meetings and Conference of the Association for the Study of Food and Society; the Agriculture, Food, and Human Values Society; and the Canadian Association for Food Studies – the first time the three organizations have met together.
Entitled Scarborough Fare, the conference will showcase the University of Toronto Department of History’s new PhD field in Food History, the first such dedicated field in a North American university. At least five current PhD students have a major or minor field in food history. With more than 10 faculty who have written scholarly works on food history or taught courses in the field, the University of Toronto is the foremost centre for food history research in the world. History faculty also took a leading role in establishing the Culinaria Research Centre at UTSC as a tri-campus hub for food studies research.
The conference emphasizes the changing nature of food production, distribution, and consumption as people, goods, foods and culinary and agricultural knowledge move over long distances and across cultural and national borders. It explores the development of cities and their transnational marketplaces where new and old migrants, entrepreneurs and emerging migrant-origin middle classes settle in suburbs such as Scarborough, rather than in older downtown districts such as the historic Toronto Chinatown along Spadina. To understand global and local food systems, we must give due attention to migrants, whether from rural districts or from cities, for they have historically provided the knowledge and labour to feed societies, while also altering the foodways of long-time natives of the areas where they settle.
The conference will feature cultural events, art installations, field trips, and a banquet that highlight the diverse communities and cuisines of Scarborough and the Greater Toronto Area.
For more information, please visit the conference website.