Initial Call for Papers
Food as Communication/Communication as Food
Editors:
Janet M. Cramer, Ph.D.
Carlnita P. Greene, Ph.D.
Lynn M. Walters, M.S.
Food has increasingly become a subject for
academic inquiry, especially in its relationship
to culture, identity, and myriad social,
economic, and political structures. Although
food cultures have been widely studied within
the fields of anthropology, sociology, and
cultural history, it is only just beginning to
be studied within the field of communication.
With the recent increase in public attention to
food, agriculture, global activism, and the
political and cultural dimensions of food
production and consumption, there is a need for
communication scholars to apply our unique
methodological and theoretical approaches to the study of food.
We invite researchers who have worked in this
area to submit completed manuscripts for an
edited collection that will become the first
text of its kind in the area of food as
communication. Specifically, the purpose of this
text will be to provide definitive and
foundational examples of how food operates as a
system of communication and how communication
theory and practices can be understood by
considering food in this way?that is, to
annalyze food through these perspectives and to
use food as a way of understanding various
communication theories. As Roland Barthes has
written, food is â??a system of communication, a
body of images, a protocol of usages,
situations, and behavior. Information about food
must be gathered wherever it can be found: by
direct observation in the economy, in
techniques, usages and advertising; and by
indirect observation in the mental life of a given society.â??
Manuscripts may use any method and should
encompass traditional approaches to
communication, such as rhetorical,
interpersonal, media and popular culture,
environmental, organizational, intercultural,
interpretive, feminist, discourse studies, and
critical/cultural perspectives. Topics include,
but are not limited to, the following:
? How food functions symbolically, meanings about food, food discouurses
? Food as communication in families and how
individuals become awarre of and learn food preferences
? Interpersonal influences on how we learn about food and our food choices
? Food and identity (including gender, race,
ethnicity, nation, sexxuality, etc.)
? Food and social style
? Food and the communication of social values,
including aspects off production, marketing,
advertising, purchasing, and consumption
? Food and organizational cultures
? Food and performance
? Languages of food
? Food and issues of social justice, poverty, hunger
? Food and political economy, globalization, world trade
? International perspectives on food
? Food and our connection to the natural world; environmental issuees
? Cooking as communication
? Food and the production/maintenance/transmission/consumption of cculture
? Food and issues of health
? Food and popular culture/media
Manuscripts should be prepared in English,
conform to APA style, and should be 6,000-9,000
words, including references. Manuscripts must
not be under review for publication elsewhere.
If a manuscript has already been published,
author(s) should provide publication details. It
is the authorâ??s responsibility to secure
copyright permission and pay any fees, if
necessary, for the manuscript to be published in
this edited collection. Preference will be given
to works not in publication elsewhere.
Manuscripts (MS Word format) should be emailed
to Janet M. Cramer, University of New Mexico,
(jcramer /at/ unm.edu) by June 1, 2009. This is an
initial call for completed manuscripts only.
Please circulate this CFP to any colleagues who might be interested.
--
Dr. Carlnita P. Greene
Assistant Professor-Communication & Rhetoric
Department of English
Nazareth College
Office: Golisano Academic Center 491
Phone: (585) 389-2440
E-Mail: (cgreene4 /at/ naz.edu)
