SYMPOSIUM: Institute of Advanced Studies Symposium - Food: production and consumption

Food: production and consumption 4-8 August 2006

• What is the cultural significance of food and drink?

• What is the relationship of food and drink to politics? the economy? the world around us? and our health?

• How does food production impact on our environment?



This Institute of Advanced Studies program considers the place of food and drink in history, in contemporary societies and culture, and related scientific developments. From production to consumption, food has an extensive practical and symbolic currency, from scientific and technological management and knowledge, to the natural, social, environmental, medical, political and economic impact, and its depth of cultural meanings and the politics of the global and local food scene today. The event brings together scholars, writers, historians, sociologists, anthropologists, scientists, and practitioners to consider food from production to consumption, including an examination of the future challenges of food production in an Australian and global context.

International guests include ‘gastrophyicist’ Dr Peter Barham (Bristol University, UK), author of The Science of Cooking; Professor of Anthropology Sidney Mintz (Johns Hopkins University, US), author of Tasting Food, Tasting Freedom: Excursions into Eating, Culture, and the Past (1996); and Professor Alan Warde (University of Manchester, UK), sociologist and author of Consumption, Food and Taste: culinary antinomies and commodity culture and Eating Out: Social differentiation, consumption and pleasure.

Australian guests include pre-eminent authority on the history, preparation and aesthetics of food in Australia, Gay Bilson; culinary historian, food writer Barbara Santich, local culinary identities Kate Lamont and Sophie Zalokar; Managing Director of National Food Industry Strategy and one of the leading policy-makers in the food sector, Susan Nelle, and many more across the sciences, arts and humanities.

The event begins with a delicious three-day excursion in Margaret River, culminating in a two-day symposium at UWA. The program is an eclectic mix of theoretical and practical applications of food, with tasting events complementing the food for thought offered by the academic papers.

For more information and venue maps including information on how to register, please visit www.ias.uwa.edu.au