An Interdisciplinary Food Studies Conference in Prato

PhD student Aysegul Kesimoglu was in Prato, Italy last week to present a part of her research on food and cultural consumption in Turkey. She attended the conference as a Graduate Scholar. As an awardee, this entitled Aysegul to receive a fee waiver at the conference and along with other awardees, they received a formal recognition and certification at the end of the conference.

Food Studies is an annual conference that aims to bring scholars from different disciplines together to enhance knowledge and to establish a wider community for researchers researching about food studies. The themes at this year’s conference included Food Politics, Policies and Cultures and Eating and Place.

Aysegul’s specific contribution fell under ‘Eating and Place‘. however there were perceived overlaps also with ‘Policies and Cultures’. Her presentation was called ‘Sociability, Family and Food: The Case of Turkish Breakfasts‘.

She presented a general overview of the breakfast culture in Turkey; focusing on  its significance for the family and sociability. She introduced some of her findings from her fieldwork, which she had been conducting through out the summer of 2014. Her main emphasis was on the informal formality of Turkish breakfasts, which seem to challenge traditional notions of class. She attested the formalization of breakfasts (which are essential mundane) to their socialization as family time. Borrowing from Ger and Kravetz, she tried to establish the notion that Turkish breakfasts are occasions of ‘timelessness and omnipresent visibility’ (Ger and Kravets [2009] 2013: 194), establishing ‘special times’ as ‘objectified with mundane consumption’ (Ger and Kravets [2009] 2013: 190).

Reference

Ger G and Kravets O ([2009] 2013) Special and Ordinary Times: Tea in Motion. In: Shove E, Trentmann F and Wilk R (eds.) Time, Consumption and Everyday Life. London, New Delhi, New York, Sydney: Bloomsbury, 189-202.

Image

With permission and courtesy of Ipek Kuran, Picasso Web, [Online],  https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/pkrTvAuAc4hS9elLhr6z29MTjNZETYmyPJy0liipFm0?feat=directlink [Accessed August 29, 2014]