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Linguistics of Food
ReN website. |
Upcoming Conference: The 2025 Georgetown University Round Table (GURT)
ABSTRACT SUBMISSION DEADLINE: 18 NOVEMBER 2024
EARLY BIRD REGISTRATION DEADLINE: 15 JANUARY 2025
REGULAR REGISTRATION DEADLINE: 27 FEBRUARY 2025
CONFERENCE DATES: 28 FEBRUARY - 02 MARCH 2025
Food and language are omnipresent and intertwined in everyday life. We use language to talk about food, and food terms have rich cultural histories and associations. Menus and food packaging labels not only provide windows on an item’s nature and quality, but also often signal association with identities such as ethnicity, region, or class. Mealtime has long been a privileged site for the study of language in use, as people talk while they eat, and while they cook. Parents use language to socialize their children into food preferences and practices; even among adults, the taste of food is collaboratively negotiated in interaction: think wine tasting, or dinner conversation. Children in school cafeterias and co-workers in workplace break rooms talk about food. People participate in online forums on topics such as gourmet cooking, veganism, and weight loss; they use language about food to portray themselves as certain kinds of people (gourmand, disciplined eater, environmentalist, picky eater, athlete). People post photos of food on Instagram, recipe videos on TikTok and Facebook, and restaurant reviews on Yelp. Food is a necessity and a luxury; it is intertwined with identities (e.g., cultural, gendered, socioeconomic, political, religious), relationships (e.g., parent-child, friend-friend, host-guest), and values (e.g., healthful eating, ethical eating), all of which are negotiated through language.
GURT 2025 will bring together diverse scholars whose work explores intersections between language and food. The conference will be inclusive of multiple approaches, including (but not limited to) interactional sociolinguistics, conversation analysis, critical discourse analysis, multimodal discourse analysis, ethnography of communication, cultural discourse analysis, narrative analysis, variation analysis, semiotics, systemic functional linguistics, historical linguistics, comparative linguistics, computational/corpus linguistics, and cognitive linguistics. We invite submissions that consider any aspect of food and language, including (but not limited to) menus, recipes, mealtime conversations, food-related online discussions, social media posts about food, food-related podcasts, food advertisements, and documentary and reality TV shows about food.
Plenary speakers include:
Martha Sif Karrebæk, Ph.D.
Professor, Department of Nordic Studies and Linguistics, University of Copenhagen
Elinor Ochs, Ph.D.
Distinguished Professor of Anthropology, University of California, Los Angeles
Tamar Kremer-Sadlik, Ph.D.
Associate Adjunct Professor of Anthropology, University of California, Los Angeles
Alla Tovares, Ph.D.
Professor of Linguistics, Howard University
Camilla Vásquez, Ph.D.
Professor of Applied Linguistics, University of South Florida
Learn more:
https://gurt.georgetown.edu/gurt-2025/
EARLY BIRD REGISTRATION DEADLINE: 15 JANUARY 2025
REGULAR REGISTRATION DEADLINE: 27 FEBRUARY 2025
CONFERENCE DATES: 28 FEBRUARY - 02 MARCH 2025
Food and language are omnipresent and intertwined in everyday life. We use language to talk about food, and food terms have rich cultural histories and associations. Menus and food packaging labels not only provide windows on an item’s nature and quality, but also often signal association with identities such as ethnicity, region, or class. Mealtime has long been a privileged site for the study of language in use, as people talk while they eat, and while they cook. Parents use language to socialize their children into food preferences and practices; even among adults, the taste of food is collaboratively negotiated in interaction: think wine tasting, or dinner conversation. Children in school cafeterias and co-workers in workplace break rooms talk about food. People participate in online forums on topics such as gourmet cooking, veganism, and weight loss; they use language about food to portray themselves as certain kinds of people (gourmand, disciplined eater, environmentalist, picky eater, athlete). People post photos of food on Instagram, recipe videos on TikTok and Facebook, and restaurant reviews on Yelp. Food is a necessity and a luxury; it is intertwined with identities (e.g., cultural, gendered, socioeconomic, political, religious), relationships (e.g., parent-child, friend-friend, host-guest), and values (e.g., healthful eating, ethical eating), all of which are negotiated through language.
GURT 2025 will bring together diverse scholars whose work explores intersections between language and food. The conference will be inclusive of multiple approaches, including (but not limited to) interactional sociolinguistics, conversation analysis, critical discourse analysis, multimodal discourse analysis, ethnography of communication, cultural discourse analysis, narrative analysis, variation analysis, semiotics, systemic functional linguistics, historical linguistics, comparative linguistics, computational/corpus linguistics, and cognitive linguistics. We invite submissions that consider any aspect of food and language, including (but not limited to) menus, recipes, mealtime conversations, food-related online discussions, social media posts about food, food-related podcasts, food advertisements, and documentary and reality TV shows about food.
Plenary speakers include:
Martha Sif Karrebæk, Ph.D.
Professor, Department of Nordic Studies and Linguistics, University of Copenhagen
Elinor Ochs, Ph.D.
Distinguished Professor of Anthropology, University of California, Los Angeles
Tamar Kremer-Sadlik, Ph.D.
Associate Adjunct Professor of Anthropology, University of California, Los Angeles
Alla Tovares, Ph.D.
Professor of Linguistics, Howard University
Camilla Vásquez, Ph.D.
Professor of Applied Linguistics, University of South Florida
Learn more:
https://gurt.georgetown.edu/gurt-2025/
About the Linguistics of Food ReN
This research network provides a space for researchers from interdisciplinary backgrounds to develop collaborative research within the linguistics of food. Building on an increasing global interest in food and eating studies, the network enables a focus on the cultural and social interactional issues around food, incorporating all forms of applied linguistic research. The aims of the network are to make more visible the diversity of linguistics research on food and to provide an interdisciplinary and cross-cultural meeting point for researchers in food and language studies.
Conveners
This research network provides a space for researchers from interdisciplinary backgrounds to develop collaborative research within the linguistics of food. Building on an increasing global interest in food and eating studies, the network enables a focus on the cultural and social interactional issues around food, incorporating all forms of applied linguistic research. The aims of the network are to make more visible the diversity of linguistics research on food and to provide an interdisciplinary and cross-cultural meeting point for researchers in food and language studies.
Conveners
- Marie-Louise Brunner: Trier University of Applied Sciences, Germany
- Jon Coltz: Saarland University, Germany
- Stefan Diemer: Trier University of Applied Sciences & Saarland University, Germany
- Keri Matwick: Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
- Marcelyn Oostendorp: Stellenbosch University, South Africa
- Polly Szatrowski: University of Minnesota, MN, USA
- Alla Tovares: Howard University, DC, USA
Get in touch. |
Coming up. |
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Please send us a note if you are interested in joining the network (provide your name, affiliation, and research interests in the domain of language and food).
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For upcoming activities, particularly food-related conferences, see our Calendar page.
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