FOOD AND DRINK EXCESS: The 13th Summer School at IEHCA (the European Institute for the History and Cultures of Food, François Rabelais University, Tours, France)
François Rabelais University, Tours,
France
and the European Institute for the
History and Cultures of Food, Tours, France (IEHCA)
are pleased to announce the Thirteenth
Summer University in Tours, France
the 30
August to
6 September, 2015:
FOOD
AND DRINK EXCESS
The
phenomenon of food and drink excess has always been of concern to human
societies. In pre-modern Europe, the emphasis lay on controlling behaviour.
Concerted attempts to secure subsistence, prevent famines, avoid God's wrath
and halt moral decline have been conceptualized as social disciplining (Gerhard
Oestreich) and a civilizing process (Norbert Elias), both perceived as key
agents on the road to modernization.
From
the later twentieth century, in the wake of industrialized production and
rising prosperity throughout the West, the focus shifted to the management of
oversupply: what to do with butter mountains, supermarket waste, obesity,
bulimia and binge-drinking (perceived as all the more scandalous given
persistent scarcity elsewhere)?
On
the other hand, of course, some cultural strands have thrived on indulgence, be
it carnivals, drinking rituals or rites of passage, while adherents of the
Bacchanalian tradition - ranging from Antique Greek symposia to the Beat
Generation of the 1960s - celebrated excess for intellectual and artistic
inspiration.
This
summer university invites graduate scholars from all disciplines, regions and
periods to re-assess the manifold connections between food, drink and excess in
long-term comparative perspective.
Academic co-directors:
> Isabelle Bianquis –
Professor of Anthropology, Université François-Rabelais, Tours, France
> Antonella Campanini –
Instructor/Researcher, Medieval History, University of Gastronomic Sciences,
Bra/Pollenzo, Italy
> Beat Kümin – Professor
of Early Modern History, University of Warwick, United Kingdom
For
further information (presentation, programme and application form) please visit
the IEHCA website at the following address: http://www.iehca.eu/IEHCA_v4/universite.html