CFP: “Transforming Asia with Food: Women and Everyday Life”

We invite abstracts for a conference that will explore the role of women in effecting change across Asia by engaging in everyday practices of food production, handling, preparation, and
consumption. Over the past few decades, the study of food has burgeoned and attracted increasing scholarly attention. However, we see a stark polarization across geographic foci and disciplinary
engagements. We propose an interdisciplinary and transtemporal analysis in which women— whom we see as a heterogenous category, intersecting with class, education, etc.—displayed
autonomous agency, with their “domestic” practices effecting significant impact on “public spaces” in a variety of locales across Asia. We plan to investigate how women’s daily practices
restructured familial, social, cultural, and at times political relations in the transition to “modernity.” Papers will examine the central themes of the conference: Identity, Movement, Media, Nation-Building, and Modernity in different sub-regions of Asia (South, East, and South-East).

If you are interested in participating in the conference, please send a paper proposal (250–300 words abstract) accompanied by a brief CV to Chiara Formichi (cf398@cornell.edu) and
Suyoung Son (ss994@cornell.edu) by July 1, 2023. Selected participants are expected to send in a paper draft by 15 March 2024. We especially encourage abstract submissions from junior scholars, and those based at institutions located in Asia. Travel expenses to Ithaca, NY and lodgings will be covered.