Call for Proposals 10th Annual Assembly of the Canadian Association for Food Studies: Capital Ideas: Nourishing Debates, Minds and Bodies

To encourage collaboration and to better reflect the broad range of important work happening in this field, we encourage academics and other researchers to submit proposals for any of the following formats, (see below for descriptions of each)

  •     Interactive sessions
  •     Thematic paper sessions
  •     Individual paper presentations
  •     Pecha-Kucha-Like Talks
  •     Exploration gallery displays
  •     “What If” Symposium
  •     CAFS Awards

All submissions due on January 5th, 2015 except for Exploration Gallery submissions due on March 15, 2015. Paper submissions and exploration gallery proposals received after these dates will only be considered if space permits.

The Canadian Association for Food Studies (CAFS) will host its tenth annual assembly at University of Ottawa from May 30 – June 2, 2015 in conjunction with the 2015 Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences. Founded in 2005, CAFS promotes critical, transdisciplinary scholarship in the broad area of food systems: production, distribution, consumption, and waste management. CAFS members are drawn from an array of disciplines including adult education, agriculture, anthropology, economics, environmental studies, health studies, home economics, human nutrition, geography, literature, psychology, philosophy, policy studies, public health, rural studies, sociology, social work and urban planning. CAFS membership is open to academics, students, policy makers, community workers, professionals, practitioners, and others interested in food studies research. CAFS recognizes the need for transdisciplinary research on food issues both within and outside of academia in response to societal needs. The conference is an opportunity to share knowledge in a number of domain areas such as: informing and critiquing policy, assessing and mobilizing the outcomes of community-based work, and demonstrating the health, social, economic, political, cultural, spiritual and environmental impacts of food systems.
Capital Ideas: Nourishing Debates, Minds and Bodies

This year’s Congress theme of ‘capital ideas’ presents an opportunity to critically examine what it means to meet in a place where decisions are made that affect the life of Canadians. Central among these ideas is our relationship with food in this place we call Ottawa, Canada/Kanata. CAFS is pleased to announce that this year’s keynote address will be given by Jim Daschuk, author of “Clearing the Plains: Disease, Politics of Starvation, and the Loss of Aboriginal Life”.

For some, Ottawa is a space of possibility: where policy and advocacy ideas provide the raw ingredients required for social change; a place in which to dream big about the changes that we would like to see in food systems. However, thinking through the prism of food, in all of its shades and colours, we are reminded that food is the origin of ideas and debates – inseparable from the material bodies and minds that gestate and carry them. It draws our attention to the fact that ideas travel and that not all capital ideas originate in the capital. Where do they originate? How do they arrive? And how are ideas changed as they travel to the capital? These are fundamental to understanding several aspects of social change and political life in the Canadian public sphere.

Equally for others, Canada’s capital region is not a place of nourishment. It is a location in which to recall previous and present inequalities and injustices with respect to food, nutrition, agricultural production, social status, distribution and income. Without a doubt, much work remains to be done in order to transcend the perceptible and imperceptible borders and boundaries of our food system. Building upon previous conferences in which we have explored ways to transform and cut across disciplinary boundaries, there will continue to be opportunities to nurture ongoing collaborations, exchange and disseminate knowledge, as well as to inform, change and occupy new ‘capital idea’ spaces.

Food nourishes both mind and body. CAFS 2015 will seek to expand spaces for dialogue about food scholarship and practice, raising questions about the embodiment of food in our various disciplines. A new feature this year will be a “What if Food Studies ____” Symposium described below. Food Studies continues to grow and evolve in a transdisciplinary context. Is the knowledge that we are generating about food studies sufficiently nourishing to areas of study outside of our own? Can it spark innovation and interactions more broadly in the social sciences and humanities? The food studies community is uniquely positioned to bring together voices which, before now, have not been able to add themselves to the conversation.

We encourage proposals dealing with the following ongoing CAFS interests as they relate to collaboration in food issues or food studies:

  •     program or project evaluation
  •     research or funding directions
  •     research methodology and practice
  •     politics and policy
  •     the political economy of food and agriculture
  •     ecological food and agriculture environments
  •     the sociology and culture of consumption
  •     soil, land and food production
  •     activism, art and media
  •     animal rights and welfare
  •     gender, ethnicity, class, and justice
  •     food insecurity and hunger
  •     food sovereignty
  •     sustainability and organics
  •     food culture or history
  •     food ethics or philosophy
  •     other food studies topics

Submissions that explore these themes and/or others are warmly invited. We hope that you will join us and the food studies community, adding your own voice to conversations about food, ‘capital ideas’ and everything in between. Submissions will be accepted in either French or English. If possible, please submit in both French and English.

More information here