Event — Summer School

Summer School Asian Food: History, Anthropology, Sociology

A Summer School devoted to the academic study of Asian Food for MA/PhD students and early career scholars.

Summer School dates: 25-29 September 2017

Intended Audience: MA/PhD students and early career scholars 

Convenors

The international experts who will contribute include:
Nir Avieli (Ben Gurion University, Israel)
Anne Murcott (SOAS, London)
Katarzyna Cwiertka (Leiden University)
Anne Gerritsen (Warwick University / Leiden University).

The Summer School

Leiden University enjoys a world-wide reputation for its expertise on Asia and for its Asian collections. To coincide with the official opening of 'The Asian Library' in September 2017, the International Institute for Asian Studies (IIAS), LeidenAsiaCentre (LAC) and the Shared Taste Project at Leiden University are hosting a Summer School devoted to the academic study of Asian Food for MA/PhD students and early career scholars. 

This unique occasion will provide wide ranging coverage of this growing interdisciplinary field with contributions from international experts with at least one of whom each student will be guaranteed an individual consultation about their own work. 

The aim of this Summer School is to highlight the wide range of resources for the academic study of Asian Food, available in Leiden, and to present advanced methodological approaches and research techniques, together with the hands-on experience necessary for the analysis of historical documents and artefacts.

Via a combination of expert lectures, student-led discussions, individual supervision, and local field trips, this Summer School will provide participants with an insight into the growing interdisciplinary field of Asian Food Studies, which will include sessions in history, anthropology, sociology, and material culture studies.

The four senior academic leaders will provide guidance to help students navigate the burgeoning literature on food, establishing in dialogue with the students a good sense of the necessary anthropological, sociological and historical tools for the analysis of all aspects of food: from preparation to consumption, from shared dining and banqueting to individual eating practices, from visual representations of food practices to the material culture that is inextricably connected to food practices, today as in the past.

The lectures, discussion groups and individual research supervision will be combined with: hands-on research training; undertaking exercises in participant observation; handling objects in museums and private collections.  All this will be supported by visits to Special Collections of Leiden University.

More Information

A more complete description and extensive practical information is available here: Summer School Asian Food: History, Anthropology, Sociology