Gallatin CIS-Symposium

CALL FOR PROPOSALS

How do cities shape food, and how does food shape cities? If we imagine cities as purely human-built, unnatural places where agricultural products are never grown and only shipped in and consumed, it suggests that the central questions of urban food are about food security, transportation and distribution, and food supply mechanisms. But the place of food and agriculture in cities is not that straightforward. When we look at food rather than agriculture, we end up seeing far beyond the questions of what we eat and where we get it from. Food is linked to many areas, from policy to urban and peri-urban farming; from disaster planning to tourism and hospitality; from land-use to culture. Food connects centre and periphery, the global and the local. What is the place of agriculture and food supply in cities? How do cities shape food supply and vice versa? How has living in cities shaped people’s relationship with food and the meaning urban people make with their meals? For this workshop, we will think across time, regions, and disciplines to consider critically the relationship of urban people and food and also think about how these practices have shaped our urban relationships with food today. 

SELECTION CRITERIA

Topics of interest may include (but are certainly not limited to):

• Interdisciplinary approaches to urban food, supply, and security.

• Linkages across the urban and the rural, local and global.

• Workers and the work of food production at any point in the value chain, from farms and oceans to home and restaurant kitchens.

• The production of material and cultural linkages between cities and hinterlands through food production, sales, and consumption.

• Migration and identity formation through food practices.

• Infrastructures and technologies of agriculture, food and water distribution, food production, cooking, and eating.

• Tourism, hospitality, and the food and beverage industries.

• Food and food packaging waste.

• Urban agriculture.

APPLICATION PROCESS

If you are interested in taking part, please send a one-page description of your intended paper for consideration to co-convenvers Fiona Williamson (fwilliamson@smu.edu.sg) and Jacob Remes (jar31@nyu.edu), by which should be sent no later than December 1, 2025.

Completed proposals should include:

• Title

• Abstract of no more than 300 words

• Author biography and affiliation