Centre for the Study of the Body and Material Culture, Royal Holloway, University of London
Time: 18 January 2017
Venue: Senate House, University of London
Proposals by: 10 November 2016
In recent years the home has come to be the focus of multidisciplinary and cross-period enquiry, yet the kitchen, although seen as the ‚heart‘ of the home in some places and periods, is still a relatively underexplored space. Studies of material culture, technology and domestic work all point to the kitchen’s wider social and cultural importance. Since the early modern period, kitchens have been a nexus of class interaction, and the place of domestic food production. Subsequently, studies of the kitchen have the potential to contribute to social and cultural histories of everyday life. This one-day workshop aims to bring together historians of the early modern and modern periods studying any aspect of kitchens and kitchen gardens, including kitchen technologies, material culture, work and personnel.
Topics for papers may include but are not restricted to:
- The material culture of kitchens (utensils, food, recipe books etc.)
- Functional objects as the subject of material culture studies
- Women’s work in the home
- Domestic servants and kitchens
- New technologies and innovation in the kitchen
- Visual representations of the kitchen
- The relationship between the kitchen and the wider home
- The history of food, cookery or eating
- The kitchen as a gendered space
- Health, hygiene and cleanliness in the kitchen
- The sensory experience of the kitchen (taste, smell, heat etc.)
- Kitchens and food as propaganda
- Kitchens as heritage sites
Please send a short abstract (c. 200-300) to Katie Carpenter (katie.carpenter.2010@live.rhul.ac.uk) no later than 10 November 2016.
Source: http://www.ruralhistory.eu/newsletter/2016/rhn-2016-092