The Amsterdam Symposium on the History of Food is the annual international point of assembly and an exchange of knowledge in the field of the food history in the Netherlands. It intends to stimulate debate and research that bridges the gap between different disciplines. Another aim is to transfer academic research to a wider public and stimulate research using the History of Food Collection of the University of Amsterdam (UvA). The symposium is therefore targeted at both an academic and a professional audience.
The Amsterdam Symposium on the History of Food is the result of a collaborative partnership between the Allard Pierson, University of Amsterdam, the Amsterdam School of Historical Studies, University of Amsterdam and the research unit Social & Cultural Food Studies (FOST) of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel.
Organizing Committee
IJsbrand van Dijk; Antonia Mazel; Joke Mammen; Jon Verriet; Ingrid de Zwarte
Advisory Board
Prof. Dr. Ir. Louise O. Fresco; Mrs. Claudia Roden; Prof. Dr. Peter Scholliers; Prof. Dr. Irene E. Zwiep.
Friday, 15 November – Saturday 16 November 2019
Venue: Aula of the University of Amsterdam
Singel 411, 1012 XM Amsterdam.
Registration
Registration will open in June.
For an update on the Symposium please sign in here.
(Post)colonial foodways
creating, negotiating, and resisting transnational food systems
Because of its manifold effects on individuals, cultures, and countries, from the 15th century onwards the colonial era had far-reaching impacts on existing foodways. Colonial rulers often imposed exploitative food systems upon the colonized, resulting in relationships that have been perpetuated, mediated, and resisted to this day. Because of their troubling and complex legacy, colonial foodways have become an essential theme in recent histories of transnational food production, consumption and trade practices from early modern mercantilism to the present. By shifting the focus from two-way colonizer-colonized relationships towards (post)colonial networks and their various nexuses, truly transnational histories are emerging that decenter Europe and go beyond traditional narratives.
Food history and (post)colonial history intersect in various ways. Theories about exploration and exploitation offer insights into (proto)capitalism and the consumption of commodities, the agency of populations in the Global South, the transfer of food technologies, and the ecological impact of restructuring and repurposing vast areas of land. Studying material culture and (post)colonial food customs, furthermore, advances an in-depth understanding of the historical negotiation of identities and ideologies. The hybridization of national and migrant cuisines, culinary (neo)colonialism, and shifting perceptions of gastronomic ‘authenticity’ all underwrite the continuing influence of the colonial era on how we speak about food and, subsequently, about ourselves.
Preliminary Programme
Friday, 15 November 2019
09:00 – 10:00 Registration and coffee
10:00 – 10:05 Welcome Marike van Roon
10:05 – 10:30 Professor J.M. van Winter Stipend
10:30 – 11.00 Keynote lecture
11:00 – 11.10 Short break
11:10 – 12.40 Panel 1 – Transatlantic legacies of slavery
- Chair: Karwan Fatah-Black
- Ilaria Berti –Sugar, Slaves, and Food: The Emergence of a Fusion and Cuisine in the West Indies Colonies (19th century)
- Debby Esmeé de Vlugt – Searching for Roots in African Soil: Black Power and the Politics of Heritage Cooking
- Laura Kihlström & Dalila D’Ingeo – Institutional Racism and the Geneology of Food Insecurity in the US South
12.40 – 13.00 Intermezzo – Postcolonial foodways in the Netherlands
- Lenno Munnikes & Joris Vermeer – Post-colonial eating out of the wall : Two different stories of the Loempia
13.00 – 14.00 Lunch break
14.00 – 15.30 Panel 2 – Nationalist policy and (de)colonisation
- Chair: Peter van Dam
- Rachel B. Herrmann – Food Diplomacy, Victual Imperialism, and Victual Warfare: A Food Studies Model for Vast Early America
- Sebastiaan Broere – “Freedom means Rice”: Food Production as a Marker of Postcolonial Independence in Indonesia, 1945-1967
- Arnoud Arps – Trading New-Amsterdam for a Spice Island: Nutmegs, Dutch Food History and the Spirit of Indonesian Nationalism
15.30 – 16:45 Coffee & Tea break
16:45 – 17:30 Prize-giving Ceremony of the 2019 Johannes van Dam Prize and the Joop Witteveen Prize
Drinks at the Allard Pierson UvA.
Saturday, 16 November 2019
09:00 – 09:30 Registration
09.30 – 10.30 Panel 3 – Pursuits of the postcolonial food industry
- Chair:
- Lola Wilhelm – “Africa must feed Africa”: Nestlé’s participation in imperial and postcolonial food engineering experiments in West Africa, 1950s-1960s
- Noa Berger – Representing the (post)colonial: Addressing the tension between colonial heritage and ethical concerns in the French specialty coffee market
10.30 – 11.00 Coffee & Tea break
11.00 – 12.00 Panel 4 – Representing the Nation: authenticity and appropriation
- Chair:
- Suzanne Cope – Feeding the Revolution: Two Case Studies on the Use of Food as a Weapon of Resistance in Contemporary (Post)colonial North America
- Catarina Passidomo – Peruvian Gastrodiplomacy: Cuisine as nation-brand in post-colonial context
12.00 – 12.20 Wrap-up by Marlou Schrover
12.20 – 12.30 Closing remarks and topic for 2020
Afternoon Programme of the Foodie Festival at the Allard Pierson of the UvA (festival starts at 13.00)
Call for Papers
Abstract submission is closed.
Please look here for the CfP: Call for Papers 2019.
Accommodation
Participants are free to make their own accommodation booking. Many hotels are situated in the vicinity of the conference venue in the Amsterdam historic city centre. The following website can be useful: www.iamsterdam.com/en/visiting.
Partners
Allard Pierson
The Allard Pierson preserves and maintains the academic heritage of the University of Amsterdam. There are over a thousand sub-collections, comprising rare and valuable books, manuscripts, prints, photographs and much, much more. The collections serve educational and research purposes but are also there for the general public.
Amsterdam School of Historical Studies, University of Amsterdam
The Amsterdam School of Historical Studies (ASH) is a research institute of the Faculty of Humanities of the University of Amsterdam. The institute focuses on culture and history. Research is organized both along thematic lines (religion, the city, theatre, conflict, medicine), and in terms of periods in time (e.g. the classical period, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, the Golden Age, the contemporary period), which are studied from an interdisciplinary perspective (art, history, literature, music, theatre, etc.).
Social & Cultural Food Studies (FOST) of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel
FOST is a research group for social and cultural food studies at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. The research group, founded in April 2003, works in collaboration with the Vlaams Centrum voor Volkscultuur, the Institut Européen de l’Histoire de l’Alimentation and the Institut National de Recherche Agronomique.
FOST aims at consolidating the expertise on foodstudies by inviting (foreign) specialists to workshops and colloquia, by operating within networks, by publishing and contemplating about food studies, and by performing new (multidisciplinary) food research.
Past years:
For the details on the topics and the programme of the Amsterdam Symposium on the History of Food of the past years please click on the titles:
2016 – Fire, Knives and Fridges
2015 – Food, Hunger and Conflict
The Amsterdam Symposium on the History of Food has been made possible with the generous support of the Allard Pierson, Amsterdam School for Historical Studies – University of Amsterdam, Bibliotheken Eemland, Carrera Culinair, Cormet, Fontaine Uitgeverij, Huizinga Instituut, Hotel De l’Europe, Nijgh Cuisine, Slow Food Amsterdam and Stichting Gastronomische Bibliotheek.