Writings
Editorial for Special Issue of Science Fiction Studies https://www.depauw.edu/sfs/covers/cov147.htm
Located under "Roundtable:SF in the Kitchen" with essay title: “Space Cookbook: Mission to the Future” - an examination of International Space Station foodways, alternative food technology/sources, and speculative fiction
Located under "Roundtable:SF in the Kitchen" with essay title: “Space Cookbook: Mission to the Future” - an examination of International Space Station foodways, alternative food technology/sources, and speculative fiction
Conference Papers / Presentations:
Eleventh International Conference on Food Studies
Venue: Danish School of Education, Aarhus University, Copenhagen, Denmark (October 28 -30, 2021)
Conference paper titled: “Southern California Festive Foodways: Altruism, Entrepreneurialism, and Cultural Affirmation”
Abstract: While festive gatherings bring communities together, it is the foodways of these events that offer an opportunity to garner more insights about culture and people. The paper focuses on the role of food and drinks in multiple community festivals and parades in the Southern California region of the United States pre-pandemic cancellations as they reveal altruistic, entrepreneurial, and cultural beliefs, practices, and influences. Ethnographic methods (i.e., interviews, photography, video recordings, and participant observation in cultural settings) were employed to document what is prepared, shared, and sold, along with inquiries about personal motivation in the Bangladesh Day Parade and Festival, Sikh Baisakhi Celebration, Taste of Ecuador Food Festival & Parade, Little Saigon Westchester Tet Parade, South Bay Greek Festival, Central American Independence Parade, Kingdom Day Parade, East L.A. Mexican Independence Day, Topanga Days Parade, and Torrance Armed Forces Day Parade.
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Living in the End Times: Utopian and Dystopian Representations of Pandemics in Fiction, Film and Culture
Venue: Cappadocia University, Mustafapaşa Campus, 50420 Ürgüp/Nevşehir/Turkey
Keynote speakers: Kim Stanley Robinson, Larissa Lai, Maggie Gee, Elizabeth Outka, Raffaella Baccolini, and Tom Moylan (January 13-15, 2021) LINK
Conference paper titled: "Eating Meals During a Pandemic/Epidemic: How Science Fiction Brings Food Commensality, Culture, and Taboos to the Experience"
Abstract: Exploring how the meal, a familiar activity in which a person or group of people consume food and drinks during a specific time, is re-imagined in six science fiction stories centered on pandemics and epidemics in various countries. The stories included are Tóxico (movie, Argentina, 2020), #Alive (movie, South Korea, 2020), Perfect Sense (movie, U.K., 2011), The Rain (series, Denmark, 2018), Severance (book, U.S., 2018), and “So Much Cooking” (short story, U.S., 2015). Each of these selected science fiction stories introduce a fictional virus that upturns the world of its characters as it stirs fear, insecurity, suspicion, and other unexpected responses in a world where eating a meal becomes a familiar/unfamiliar experience. I will connect these stories through themes of food ingredients, sharing and commensality, and social behaviors associated with preparation, presentation, consumption, avoidance, and taboo breaking. For example, the theme of commensality and sharing in the movie #Alive about a virus that causes the infected to become zombies is depicted through two non- infected characters preparing and eating noodles while describing how they like to customize the dish. This act suggests the building of friendship, trust, and solidarity. Later, they encounter a man who saves them from an attack in the hallway and generously shares his food and water supply in a time when resources are scarce. Unfortunately, it is a deceptive gesture; the man is attempting to gain their trust so he can feed them to his infected wife. These scenes can also be read as displays of cultural foodways and means to better understand human expectations and characters’ states of mind.
Eleventh International Conference on Food Studies
Venue: Danish School of Education, Aarhus University, Copenhagen, Denmark (October 28 -30, 2021)
Conference paper titled: “Southern California Festive Foodways: Altruism, Entrepreneurialism, and Cultural Affirmation”
Abstract: While festive gatherings bring communities together, it is the foodways of these events that offer an opportunity to garner more insights about culture and people. The paper focuses on the role of food and drinks in multiple community festivals and parades in the Southern California region of the United States pre-pandemic cancellations as they reveal altruistic, entrepreneurial, and cultural beliefs, practices, and influences. Ethnographic methods (i.e., interviews, photography, video recordings, and participant observation in cultural settings) were employed to document what is prepared, shared, and sold, along with inquiries about personal motivation in the Bangladesh Day Parade and Festival, Sikh Baisakhi Celebration, Taste of Ecuador Food Festival & Parade, Little Saigon Westchester Tet Parade, South Bay Greek Festival, Central American Independence Parade, Kingdom Day Parade, East L.A. Mexican Independence Day, Topanga Days Parade, and Torrance Armed Forces Day Parade.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Living in the End Times: Utopian and Dystopian Representations of Pandemics in Fiction, Film and Culture
Venue: Cappadocia University, Mustafapaşa Campus, 50420 Ürgüp/Nevşehir/Turkey
Keynote speakers: Kim Stanley Robinson, Larissa Lai, Maggie Gee, Elizabeth Outka, Raffaella Baccolini, and Tom Moylan (January 13-15, 2021) LINK
Conference paper titled: "Eating Meals During a Pandemic/Epidemic: How Science Fiction Brings Food Commensality, Culture, and Taboos to the Experience"
Abstract: Exploring how the meal, a familiar activity in which a person or group of people consume food and drinks during a specific time, is re-imagined in six science fiction stories centered on pandemics and epidemics in various countries. The stories included are Tóxico (movie, Argentina, 2020), #Alive (movie, South Korea, 2020), Perfect Sense (movie, U.K., 2011), The Rain (series, Denmark, 2018), Severance (book, U.S., 2018), and “So Much Cooking” (short story, U.S., 2015). Each of these selected science fiction stories introduce a fictional virus that upturns the world of its characters as it stirs fear, insecurity, suspicion, and other unexpected responses in a world where eating a meal becomes a familiar/unfamiliar experience. I will connect these stories through themes of food ingredients, sharing and commensality, and social behaviors associated with preparation, presentation, consumption, avoidance, and taboo breaking. For example, the theme of commensality and sharing in the movie #Alive about a virus that causes the infected to become zombies is depicted through two non- infected characters preparing and eating noodles while describing how they like to customize the dish. This act suggests the building of friendship, trust, and solidarity. Later, they encounter a man who saves them from an attack in the hallway and generously shares his food and water supply in a time when resources are scarce. Unfortunately, it is a deceptive gesture; the man is attempting to gain their trust so he can feed them to his infected wife. These scenes can also be read as displays of cultural foodways and means to better understand human expectations and characters’ states of mind.
Digest: A Journal of Foodways and Culture
Vol 7 No 1 (2019): Winter 2019-2020
Book Review writing of: Dying to Eat: Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Food, Death, and the Afterlife (Candi K. Cann, ed. University Press of Kentucky, 2017) click for .pdf here
Vol 7 No 1 (2019): Winter 2019-2020
Book Review writing of: Dying to Eat: Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Food, Death, and the Afterlife (Candi K. Cann, ed. University Press of Kentucky, 2017) click for .pdf here
Parade History (www.ParadeHistory.com) Visit the website for my writings and photo essays about parades, processions, marches, walks, demonstrations, promenades, motorcades, pilgrimages, and related festive events in California and worldwide. I try to bring a little science fiction, environmental awareness, cultural appreciation, and creativity to the articles.
Before Parade History, I wrote on H-Net Celebration (2017-2019) part of the H-net academic humanities site. My essays were listed under Parade Talk blog. On this site, I included my fieldwork photos and unusual interpretations of events. I often employed an anthropology, folklore, film studies, material culture, or some other relevant seeming perspective to the writing. Topics explored include:
- outer space
- social movements
- commercial and movie screen parodies
- trademarked costumes
- phenomenology
- nudity and utopian ideas
- material culture
- cultural symbolism
- specific fieldwork with Hare Krishna Festival of Chariots, Topless Day Parade, Japanese Nisei Week Grand Parade, Annual Bridge USA Natsu Masuri - Japanese mikoshi parade, Kingdom Day parade, Women's March...
I've since created Twitter and Instagram sites to accompany the Parade History | Parade Talk site.
Art Interview click here
Click image for article
