IAN MOSBY, PhD

Cross-posted with ActiveHistory.ca

History has a distinct taste. Actually, it also has a distinct smell, feel, sound, and look to it but – as a historian of food and nutrition – I always find myself coming back to the taste of history. No, I’m not talking about the musty, acrid taste of dust and mildew as you open up a long neglected archival box or that weird metallic aftertaste you get after sitting in front of a microfilm reader for way, way too long. History can also taste like molasses, cloves, nutmeg, raisins. You know, the good stuff.

At least this is what I tried to prove to the students in History 3240: Food History at the University of Guelph this past semester. Not only did I want to teach them about the versatility of food history as an entry point into the history of science, immigration, colonialism and gender – not to mention business, environmental, or political history. But I also wanted to prove to them that, as budding food historians, they should always make sure to actually eat their primary sources. (more…)

I’m one of the co-organizers – along with Catherine Carstairs and Kristin Burnett – of the upcoming scholarly workshop, Foodscapes of Plenty and Want: Historical Perspectives on Food, Health and the  Environment in Canada. The workshop is being held at the University of Guelph between June 23 and 25, 2013. The goal is to bring together Canadian scholars working on research projects that examine the historical relationship between food history and the history of health, medicine and the environment and, eventually, to use the papers presented at the workshop as the basis of a special issue of the Canadian Bulletin of Medical History (CBMH).

The program is up at the website here and you can read through the abstracts here. Registration for the conference is also FREE. To register, send an email to foodscapes2013@gmail.com.