Digging Deeper
Chasing the Noodles through Central Asia: A Multi-disciplinary Journey on Gastronomy, History, and Language View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Emrah Yesil
Can a multidisciplinary journey along the ancient trade roads which is focusing on the cultural, linguistic, and historical footprints of staple food like “noodles” [Chinese: “拉面” (lamian)/Uyghur Language: “لەغمەن“ (legmen)/ Kyrgyz language: “лагман” (lagman)] contribute to an alternative narrative of complementarity and continuity against the so-called dichotomy between the nomadic and settled civilizations of Asia? As the ancient trade roads themselves, my research question is long as well; however, such a multi-disciplinary journey might not only reveal a comprehensive perspective to the topic but also provide us with some new information. Thus, my research intends to take a lingua-cultural perspective on the history of a particular food from China into Central Asia, and: therefore, I believe that tracing a specific culinary item, its name and its recipe in different cultures could illustrate what I was trying to express via my research question. All in all, the target of my research is mainly to contribute to the history of an ignored part of the world (Central Asia) with a peculiar approach combining the academic areas of history/cultural history, language, and gastronomy, and to underline the deeply rooted similarities/commonalities among the cultures/societies that have traditionally been evaluated in an antagonistic fashion.
Featured The Bioethical Underpinnings to Addressing Food Insecurity in the United States View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Jennifer Ocin
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) defines food security as “access by all people at all times to enough food for an active, healthy life.” In contrast, food insecurity should be addressed as an issue of wide public health concern that deserves attention by lawmakers due to its detrimental health and socioeconomic effects. Bioethics can present a framework to view the issue of food insecurity and can allow agencies of authority and action in American society to combat the issue with moral imperatives. Prior research has sought reasoning for applying bioethics to the economic argument around the agricultural business such as the production and consumerism of genetically modified crops, to using a human rights framework to create policy addressing food insecurity, and to using ethics to identify the extent of food insecurity. There is a gap in research addressing the application of bioethics in public health agendas and lawmaking regarding the pressing issue of food insecurity, food access, and food resource allocation. This paper provides a real-world application of three of the main principles of utilitarian bioethics to the fields of public health and law in order to combat food insecurity in the United States: 1) beneficence, 2) non-maleficence, 3) justice.
Faith in Food: How the Slow Food Movement Is Sacralizing Our Cuisine View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Ellie Martin
Slow Food has long been studied subjectively, attempting to determine the quality of the movement’s message. However, little attention has been paid to the sociological perspective of the movement. This thesis aims to understand the sacralization process underway within the Slow Food movement, using sociological theories of secularization and sacralization as its lens. It suggests that Slow Food communicates its understanding of the sacred through its fundamental values: good, clean, and fair food for all. To begin, this study places the modern Slow Food movement within its historical context. It then analyzes existing sociological theory to understand how Slow Food counters the typical secularization theory and instead offers an illustrative example of what we will call immanent sacralization. Finally, this it discovers the many ways, some intentional and others less obvious, that Slow Food (re)produces the sacralization of good, clean, and fair. Content analysis of social media posts, podcasts, newsletters, and more from August 2021 through January 2022 is supplemented with remote participant observation and five interviews to teach us about the meso-level complexities of nontraditional sacralization in a secular world. By evaluating the practices and lived experiences of the Slow Food community, this paper highlights the importance of the Slow Food movement and similar nonreligious social movements as primary spaces of meaning.
