The 21st Symposium of Australian Gastronomy will be celebrated in Melbourne, Australia, from Friday 2 to Monday 5 December 2016. At this coming-of-age gathering of gastronomic scholars, writers and practitioners, we are looking with hope towards bright food futures with our guiding theme of ‘Utopian Appetites’.
The year 2016 also marks five centuries since the publication of Thomas More’s Utopia (1516). With its founding principles of desire, order, justice and hope, utopia represents a framework to think about gastronomy as both an imaginary ideal and a realisable goal for the future. The utopian theme encourages us to envisage the gastronomic project of eating well, bridging disciplinary boundaries, encompassing different spaces, practices, cultures and times.
Participants include:
- Darra Goldstein—founding editor of Gastronomica
- Robert Appelbaum—Uppsala University, Sweden
- Barbara Santich—food writer and emeritus professor, University of Adelaide
- David Szanto—Eco-Gastronomy Project at University of Gastronomic Sciences
- Stephanie Alexander—cook, food writer, and founder of the Kitchen Garden Foundation
- Josh Evans—Lead Researcher, Nordic Food Lab
- Annie Smithers—food writer and chef
- Jane Levi—Kings College London and Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery
The Symposium will feature original papers exploringreal and ideal contexts of eating well, considered from historical, cultural, aesthetic, political, ideological, social, nutritional, environmental, religious, agricultural, philosophical, or any other perspectives. Australian gastronomy is the main feature, but papers with an international focus are also included.
Topics covered can include:
Gastronomy and the politics of hope
Ecological utopias of past, present and future
Utopian culinary histories
Cockaigne, Lubberland, and realms of plenty
Utopian desires and dreaming
Food and farming in utopian and dystopian literature
Terroir and utopia in wine production and consumption
Utopian nature-cultures
Food gardens, pleasures and paradise
Governance, democracy and utopia
Food sovereignty, social experimentation and revolutionary hopes for change
Posthuman or postcolonial food imaginaries
Intentional food communities and new modes for living well
City and country connections and interdependency
Outrageous, improbable and impossible food futures
Participants can include academics and independent scholars, artists and activists, cooks and chefs, journalists and writers, food producers and artisans in the form of panel discussions, presentations, literary reflections, manifestos, performances and interactive experiments relating to utopia and gastronomy.
Symposium Convenors:
Kelly Donati (William Angliss Institute) – kellyd@angliss.edu.au
Jacqueline Dutton (University of Melbourne) – jld@unimelb.edu.au
The Symposium will take place at William Angliss Institute and the University of Melbourne with a daytrip by bus to Central Victoria. The cost is $625 per person ($450 for students with valid ID). This covers all food, wine and excursion costs. Travel to Melbourne and accommodation is not included. The conference will run from Friday evening to Monday evening which will conclude with the banquet dinner.
In keeping with the tradition of the Symposium of Australian Gastronomy, please come with a spirit of participation, indulgence and hope.
To stay up to date on new information and Frequently Asked Questions about the Symposium, please see the website: www.gastronomers.net and join our Facebook group Symposium of Australian Gastronomy https://www.facebook.com/groups/1653092668277952/
Sir Thomas More, by Hans Holbein the Younger, 1527
From Wikimedia Commons, the free media repository
