Deadline for applications was November 11, 2008
UI faculty and staff members are invited to apply for the Obermann Center’s Fall 2009 Cmiel Research Semester.
In recent years, scholars from diverse disciplines have begun to reconceptualize the field of Food Studies. We approach the production, distribution, and consumption of food as a network of relationships among social history; anthropology; cultural theory; ethnic, gender, and sexuality studies; popular culture studies; political science and law; environmental science; nutrition; and histories of technology and industrialization.
University of Iowa scholars have much to contribute to this dialogue. We live in a historically agrarian state whose economy is central to food production and manufacturing for the U.S. and the world, as well as for the production of food-derived commodities such as ethanol. Significant litigation over agricultural zoning, food industry laborers, and food labeling standards has originated in Iowa. This interdisciplinary semester offers an opportunity to build distinctive approaches to the study of food through a focus on food issues related to industrialization and post-industrialization.
Seminar questions might include: How is the history of industrialization re-defined when it is understood as a history shaped by food production and distribution? How does the business of food – past and present – and its technologies, legal regulation, economics, and politics provide the basis for understanding foodways and the roles of food in modern society? How are individual identities (in relationship to gender, class, race, and ethnicity) altered by industrialized and commercial food, the changing technologies of the kitchen, and the commercial preparation and serving of food? How have food regulation and safety issues impacted national and international social, economic, and political values and relationships? How have the mass media both contributed and responded to the industrialization of food?
Participants will gather at the UI Obermann Center for Advanced Studies during the Fall Semester of 2009. The goal is to advance important scholarly and creative work as participants strengthen their own projects through the exchange of ideas, resources, and work-in-progress in the context of weekly seminar discussions.
Participants receive a course reduction and $1500 each for discretionary research expenses. Participants are selected through competitive review and with the approval of Department and Collegiate Executive Officers. The Obermann Center will negotiate compensation to the department/college to help defray costs associated with the released time.
Funding is provided by the Office of the Vice President for Research, the Office of the Provost, and the C. Esco and Avalon L. Obermann Fund. All UI tenured, tenure-track, and clinical faculty members are eligible. Also eligible are UI Professional and Scientific full-time staff members with a terminal degree or equivalent record of scholarship and a regular (that is, not temporary) appointment.
Participants will be in residence at the Obermann Center at least two days per week to facilitate formal and informal interactions. The group will convene weekly. Participants will be provided with office space, personal computers, Internet access, library service, technical support, copying and meeting rooms.
The Cmiel Research Semester is named in memory of UI interdisciplinary researcher and Obermann Center Scholar Kenneth Cmiel.
The conveners of the Cmiel Research Semester are Lauren Rabinovitz, Professor of American Studies and Cinema, and Doris Witt, Associate Professor of English and (by courtesy) Law.
Inquiries: Jay Semel, Obermann Center Director,
at jay-semel@uiowa.edu, 335-4034, or
lauren-rabinovitz@uiowa.edu (335 0320) or
doris-witt@uiowa.edu (335 0432)
Online Application Guidelines
Deadline for applications was Tuesday, November 11, 2008
All materials should be submitted online. If it is not feasible to submit the sample of published work by email, then campus mail it to Neda Barrett, Obermann Center, N103 OH
* Please combine all of the application materials into one Word or PDF document which you will upload when you fill out the online form at <http://www.uiowa.edu/obermann/food/application.html>