Kai Aotearoa seminar series – 4 october 2023

Seminar 5
Food Studies in Aotearoa

Dr Carolyn Morris, Dr Amir Sayadabdi, Fiona Rogge

This panel examines the state of the rapidly growing descipline of Critical Food Studies in Aotearoa New Zealand from the perspective of three scholars in different stages of their careers. The panel draws attention to some of the gaps in the research being undertaken, reviews some of the current challenges and opportunities within the discpline, and explores potentials for future direction in research and pedagogy.

Carolyn Morris’s research and teaching interests are in cultures of agriculture and the politics of food. She has interests in ethnicity, gender, rurality and race relations. Her current research interests are focused on the making of markets, in particular for Maori potatoes, heritage potatoes in Ireland and sheep milk. She is also interested in the processes of food innovation.

Amir Sayadabdi is Senior Lecturer in Anthropology at Te Herenga Waka, Victoria University of Wellington. He is mainly interested in anthropology of food and its intersection with gender studies, migration studies, and studies of race, ethnicity, and nationalism. He is also interested in cultural history of food and the ways in which food and foodways have influenced, changed, and/or informed political and economic structures, institutions, and social pressures in the past.

Fiona Rogge is a third year undergraduate at Te Herenga Waka studying towards a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology and Political Science, and aims to continue with anthropology of food in future study. She is interested in the intersection of food studies with migration, colonialism, conflict, and climate change, and the ways in which social and environmental movements shape societies’ food and foodways. Fiona is also drawn to Food Studies in the context of Aotearoa, and the gaps in academia concerning Indigenous and queer food epistemologies.

Click here to view a recording of the seminar