CFP Leeds 2011

Medica and the Wellcome Trust are co-sponsoring a session on food and nutritional health at next year's Medieval Congress at Leeds. The Call for Papers follows:

International Medieval Congress, Leeds, 11-14 July 2011

The rich man's feast and the poor man's fare:

multidisciplinary approaches to food and nutritional health

in the Middle Ages

Sponsors: Wellcome Trust / Medica

In a recent article for the Journal of Medieval History Chris Woolgar drew attention to the rich multidisciplinary opportunities for research and collaboration afforded by the study of medieval food. Yet historical food and dietary health are still not very well established as an academic field and the subject seems ripe for exploration as part of the special thematic strand Poor … Rich at the International Medieval Congress in Leeds in 2011. We are looking for papers (for one or more sessions) that consider at least one of the following topics from a comparative socio-economic perspective (i.e. comparing rich and poor people’s nutrition and foodstuffs). We welcome international proposals from people working in museums, schools, historical re-enactment, food science and bioarchaeology, as well as from historians, art historians and literary specialists.

· Cooking medieval food for the modern public: problems and opportunities

· Teaching history through food

· Dietary health and regimen for rich and poor

· Eating and morality

· Feasting and fasting

· Food and charity

· Food production and food processing

· Bioarchaeological approaches

· Food and finance: medieval cost of eating

· Malnourishment, undernourishment, excess

· Social determinants of nutritional (ill-)health

The International Medieval Congress attracts over 1500 participants every year from more than forty countries, thus making it the largest conference of its kind in Europe. For more information, including registration, accommodation and bursaries, please go to http://www.leeds.ac.uk/ims/imc/imc2011_call.html. This call for papers is inspired by a new Wellcome Trust-funded engaging science award: You Are What You Ate: Food Lessons from the Past (grant no: 092293). Over the next three years the project will bring together historians, scientists, bioarchaeologists, re-enactors, museum officers and nutritionists in the exploration of diet and eating habits, past and present. There may be some project funds to cover registration costs at the congress for museum professionals and school teachers, and also re-enactors who are not in academic posts. Please make your status clear when sending in your proposal (appropriate proofs will be required).

Please send all proposals to: Iona McCleery, School of History, University of Leeds, LEEDS LS2 9JT, i.mccleery@leeds.ac.uk, phone: +44 (0)113 34 38543

Closing date for proposals: 9 September 2010 (submission 250 words, preferably by e-mail)

(submitted by Iona McCleery)