Ubbo Emmius Conference "A Culinary Exchange: Food History Through Time and Space" 

On the 10th of June 2022, the annual Ubbo Emmius Conference will take place. This year the conference will be dedicated to food and culinary exchange in history. Within this broader theme, we will be focussing on food cultures and cross-cultural culinary exchange throughout the ages. Showing the variety of approaches one can take to this often considered niche theme of historical inquiry will allow us to explore global processes of exchange and zoom in on a local or regional level. This provides us with a set of lenses through which we can analyze the social, cultural, and political processes in food history that still influences food cultures and national or regional identities to this day.

During the conference, we will explore topics ranging from international gastrodiplomacy in southeast Asia by Prof. Dr. Katarzyna Cwiertka, ideologies of health and food security in Europe by Dr. Albena Shkodrova-Desmet, to the food experience of travelers during the Grant Tour by Dr. Melissa Calaresu. In our search to organize a dynamic history conference, we want to introduce our visitors to the variety of exciting perspectives and approaches one could research within the topic of food history.

In collaboration with the Special Collections of the University Library of Groningen, Merit Hondelink will give a workshop on culinary exchange in food consumption practices in historical cookbooks. Eva Noort will provide us with a historical tasting experience with historical dishes from the Netherlands. Lastly, Groninger Genever will take us on the journey of distilling liqueur and whiskey from grain to drink.

For more information on the conference, you can visit our website: https://conferenceubbo.com/ or check out our Instagram page @conference_ubbo

We hope to welcome you all to our conference!