"Does Gender Matter in Italian Food Activism?" with Carole Counihan
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Lebanon Valley College North College Ave., Annville, Pennsylvania 17003-1400
Carole Counihan is Professor Emerita of Anthropology at Millersville University in Pennsylvania. Her research centers on food, culture, gender, and identity in the United States and Italy. She won a 2005-2006 National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship for "A Tortilla Is Like Life: Food and Culture in the San Luis Valley of Colorado." Counihan is also author of "Around the Tuscan Table: Food, Family and Gender in Twentieth Century Florence" and "The Anthropology of Food and Body: Gender, Meaning, and Power."
This talk considers whether and how gender plays a role in contemporary Italian food activism. It uses ethnographic data gathered in Cagliari, Sardinia, in 2011 and 2013 on the alternative food movement to ask how Italians’ gendered experiences with food might contribute to or detract from their efforts to promote democracy in the food system. It hypothesizes that food may be a domain that allows for gender malleability, transformation, and equality because it has a historical, cultural, sensory, and expressive richness for both genders. This potential for gender progress may enhance the alternative food movement’s ability to bring about lasting social change.
Dr. Counihan's appearance in the Colloquium series is sponsored by the First Year Seminar Course "Food and Philosophy" taught by Dr. Robert Valgenti and is made possible through funding from the 2014-15 President's Innovation Grants.
Price: Free