Call for Chapters: Foodways in Middle East and North Africa

RHN 56/2013 | Call

Organiser: Nancy L. Stockdale, University of North Texas

Deadline: 1 September 2013

 

Call for Chapters (Edited Volume):
Foodways in Middle East and North Africa

This is a call for proposals for chapters in an edited volume, tentatively titled “Historical and Contemporary Foodways in the Middle East and North Africa,” edited by Nancy L. Stockdale of the University of North Texas. This book is under contract to be published by the University of Arkansas Press in their Food and Foodways Series, edited by Jennifer Jensen Wallach.

This book will explore foodways in the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region from the emergence of Islam to the present day, engaging with political, social, cultural, economic, ecological, agricultural, and artistic expressions of, and issues around, food and foodways. We are looking for chapters from across the disciplines, and are particularly interested in topics such as:

  • The role of food and foodways in the creation and assertion of public and private identities;
  • The political and economic roles of food vis-à-vis the Arab Spring and earlier revolutionary moments in MENA history;
  • Social practices concerning preparation and consumption of food;
  • The impact of migration, displacement, and immigration on MENA food and foodways;
  • Gendered aspects of food production, preparation, and consumption in the MENA region;
  • Intersections of class, ethnicity, and religion in the history of food and foodways;
  • The historical and contemporary significance of global trade on the diversification of MENA food (for example, the Silk Road trade in spices and foodstuffs, the introduction of American-style fast food, etc.);
  • Issues of charity, sustainability, and food security/insecurity in MENA histories and societies.

We welcome proposals on other topics as well. We would like this book to provide the reader with a clear sense of temporal dynamism as well as geographic differences in the region. We aim to have various ethnic and religious groups represented in this volume, including Arabs (Muslim, Christian, and Jewish), Berbers, Israelis, Kurds, Persians, Turks, Armenians, Greeks, Copts, and others. We want to illustrate the dynamism of class and lifestyle (urban/rural/nomadic) in the MENA region, and would like to have at least one chapter that is rooted in food memoir, perhaps with recipes. In this way, readers will have a clear notion of how identities and foodways are intertwined, as well as understand larger historical and contemporary lived experiences in the MENA region.

Please submit your chapter proposals (400-700 words) by 1 September 2013. Final chapters will be 7,000 words (including notes) and will be due 1 June 2014. Please send proposals and questions via email to Nancy L. Stockdale.

Source: H-Net