Talk about food is now flourishing. Topics around taste, cooking, good food, gastronomy, wine, conviviality are frequently discussed both in the old and new media. Newspapers, magazines, cinema, radio, television and the internet are chock-full of recipes, restaurant and wine reviews, food and wine tours tips, cooking competitions, cooking shows, chef stories, advertising campaigns and anything else related to what we might now call gastromania.
And we talk about it as well, albeit in different tones, in specialized texts of various kinds, whether they are written by scholars of various doctrines – from history to philosophy, from anthropology to sociology, from semiotics to literature, from neuroscience to chemistry and physiology – as well as from industry critics or cooks, producers and restaurateurs. What seems to be missing, apart from a few exemplary cases, is a bridge that allows a fruitful dialogue between these two universes of discourse, which are internally vigorous but closed to their exterior. As anachronistic or caricatural as it may seem, there is no doubt that, in the face of the vast and varied universe of food, scholars pay too little attention to the media and the media pay little heed to the academy.
The purpose of our conference is to bring together people from the two sides of this discursive divide and to enact a fruitful exchange in various forms – from academic lectures to movie projections, from culinary workshops to fieldwork and research, from debates on food ethics to the degustation of local food and wine. This invitation is therefore addressed to academics, food professionals and media influencers.
We choose to invite as a keynote one of the greatest narrators of taste – Tassos Boulmetis, the director of the award-winning movie A Touch of Spice (2003). The movie will be shown on the first day of the event and all participants will have the chance to hear from the auteur the exciting story behind that adventure of taste, politics and nostalgia. There will be an open discussion with all participants.
We have invited representatives from the food industry, influencers from media, other culinary professionals and educators to share their experience during the conference.
On the side of academia, keynotes will be delivered by distinguished scholars such as Prof. Gianfranco Marrone and Prof. Dario Mangano from University of Palermo, Prof. Dario Martinelli, Kaunas University of Technology, Prof. Kristian Bankov form New Bulgarian University.
Gianfranco Marrone: “Après la gastromanie: pratiquer et étudier la cuisine” (in French, PPT in English)
Dario Martinelli: “The filmic representation of vegans and vegetarians”
Kristian Bankov: “Food, wine and sacred beliefs: to conceive a brand”
Conference fee: 50 Euro, REGISTRATION FORM contact us on:
Preliminary program (after 10 July)
The conference is funded by Erasmus+ KA2 Project Code: 2017-1-IT02-KA201-036736
with the support of the STRATEGIC DEVELOPMENT FUND of New Bulgarian University
The conference is under the auspices of the International Association for Semiotic Studies (IASS)