2016 Indiana
Content
Digesting Discourses: Taste, Appetite, and Consumption
We are issuing a Call for Proposals for scholarly and creative submissions for an international,
interdisciplinary Graduate Student Conference entitled “Digesting Discourses: Taste, Appetite,
and Consumption,” to be held at Indiana University—Bloomington, March 4-5, 2016. Join us for
our 14 annual conference hosted by the graduate students of the IU Department of English.
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Daily life is ordered by many kinds of consumption, all of which influence the way we produce
and comprehend meaning within the world. “Digesting Discourses” invites scholars from the
humanities, sciences, law, and public health to explore the diverse meanings of taste, appetite,
and consumption across texts, methodologies, and time periods. What do metaphors of eating
and digestion reveal about the materiality of knowledge? How do aesthetic and physical
consumption differ? What does the critical history of material consumption reveal about patterns
and power dynamics of cultural exchange? How do genre, discipline, and methodology impact
the representation and study of these topics?
We invite proposals for individual papers as well as panels organized by topic. We also welcome
the interaction of scholarly and creative work within papers or panels.
Please submit (both as an attachment AND in the body of the email) an abstract of no more than
250 words along with a few personal details (name, institutional affiliation, degree level, email,
and phone number) by Friday, December 11th, 2015, to [email protected]. Below
are some suggestions for possible topics. While this list is by no means exhaustive, we hope
these ideas might inspire some exciting new thoughts related to the conference theme.
Appetite, Desire, and Sexuality
Food Studies and the History of Food
Disordered Eating and Health
Gustatory and Aesthetic Taste
Objectification of Gender
Fat Feminism
Eating the Other
Race and Cultural Appropriation
Travel Narratives
Post-apocalyptic Narratives, Cannibalism, and Zombie Culture
Capitalism and Commodification
Conspicuous Consumption
The Fetish and “Food Porn”
Fair Trade and Ethical Consumption
Physiology of Reading
Eating Your Dasein
The Last Supper, Con/Transubstantiation
Feast, Festival, and Carnival
Gentrification and Urbanization
Object Oriented Ontology
Hoarding
Snacktivism and Slow Food
The Need for Feed
Media Consumerism and Binge-watching
Animal Rights and Animal Studies
Conservation and The Commons
The Serialization of Novels
Etiquette Books
Waste and the Profane
Medieval and Renaissance Sumptuary Laws
Sound Studies, Sampling, and Remixing
(Post-)Colonialism, Importation/Exportation
We are issuing a Call for Proposals for scholarly and creative submissions for an international,
interdisciplinary Graduate Student Conference entitled “Digesting Discourses: Taste, Appetite,
and Consumption,” to be held at Indiana University—Bloomington, March 4-5, 2016. Join us for
our 14 annual conference hosted by the graduate students of the IU Department of English.
th
Daily life is ordered by many kinds of consumption, all of which influence the way we produce
and comprehend meaning within the world. “Digesting Discourses” invites scholars from the
humanities, sciences, law, and public health to explore the diverse meanings of taste, appetite,
and consumption across texts, methodologies, and time periods. What do metaphors of eating
and digestion reveal about the materiality of knowledge? How do aesthetic and physical
consumption differ? What does the critical history of material consumption reveal about patterns
and power dynamics of cultural exchange? How do genre, discipline, and methodology impact
the representation and study of these topics?
We invite proposals for individual papers as well as panels organized by topic. We also welcome
the interaction of scholarly and creative work within papers or panels.
Please submit (both as an attachment AND in the body of the email) an abstract of no more than
250 words along with a few personal details (name, institutional affiliation, degree level, email,
and phone number) by Friday, December 11th, 2015, to [email protected]. Below
are some suggestions for possible topics. While this list is by no means exhaustive, we hope
these ideas might inspire some exciting new thoughts related to the conference theme.
Appetite, Desire, and Sexuality
Food Studies and the History of Food
Disordered Eating and Health
Gustatory and Aesthetic Taste
Objectification of Gender
Fat Feminism
Eating the Other
Race and Cultural Appropriation
Travel Narratives
Post-apocalyptic Narratives, Cannibalism, and Zombie Culture
Capitalism and Commodification
Conspicuous Consumption
The Fetish and “Food Porn”
Fair Trade and Ethical Consumption
Physiology of Reading
Eating Your Dasein
The Last Supper, Con/Transubstantiation
Feast, Festival, and Carnival
Gentrification and Urbanization
Object Oriented Ontology
Hoarding
Snacktivism and Slow Food
The Need for Feed
Media Consumerism and Binge-watching
Animal Rights and Animal Studies
Conservation and The Commons
The Serialization of Novels
Etiquette Books
Waste and the Profane
Medieval and Renaissance Sumptuary Laws
Sound Studies, Sampling, and Remixing
(Post-)Colonialism, Importation/Exportation
