The study of food is of interest in scholarly research as academics have found foodways to transform over centuries in respect to all disciplines. Food is not just ingredients or recipes, it is an interdisciplinary and sustainable source for research to understand cultural ideologies, religious rituals, the humanities, human sciences, engineering, and fine arts. Food explains a lot more about our world than we give it credit for. 

Concordia Food Studies is a research group dedicated to the research of foodways and exchange of ideas on food-related subjects. Led by Professor Rhona Richman Kenneally, with the sponsorship of the Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies in Society and Culture, Concordia Food Studies aims to create a food hub from which students can look at food from a new perspective, respect food, and learn from food. 

Food Study courses at Concordia comprises more than a dozen faculty and graduate students whose scholarship covers, among other themes:

• food’s role in the construction of identity, and national, religious, and geographic affiliation, as demonstrated through case studies, historical data, folklore, literature, popular culture, etc.
• investigation of various stimuli, for example notions of comfort or of culinary supremacy, that create and characterize the eating (and drinking) experience, and also of the means through which such stimuli are valorized and promoted in a given place and time
• food-related visual and material culture—recipes and cookbooks; appliances and kitchen tools; furniture and eating implements—as major elements of consumer practices
• the architecture and design of the home, of restaurants, and of kitchens specifically, as interactive spaces that themselves both reflect and contribute to eating habits both positive and problematic
• food, health and sustainability in terms of agriculture and production, including a consideration of organic versus factory-farming practices, the concept of terroir, buying local, fair-trade ingredients, adhering to Slow Food ideals, and other aspects of responsible eating

This website is intended as an academic food hub as a means of distributing information on Concordia food activities to students, departments, Faculties, and the larger Food Studies community. Like our food world, the academic field that examines food will also change over time and this website will track the Concordia Food Studies offerings each academic year. 

Contact us at food@concordia.ca