Southern Miss Food Research Group Lecture Series Begins Oct. 1
Wed, 10/01/2014 - 09:44am
The Southern Miss Food Research Group, a collaboration of various departments at The University of Southern Mississippi that study food, will host “The Culinary Communities of Mississippi: Farm, Table and Campus,” a lecture series that will explore how we cook, eat and grow food in Mississippi.
The first lecture will be held Wednesday, Oct. 1 at 6 p.m. in the Peck House-Asbury Annex on the Southern Miss Hattiesburg campus. "The Carrot and the Stick: The Role of Government in Nutrition" will be presented by Dr. Joseph Weinberg, a political science professor at Southern Miss.
The Department of Communication, Department of History, Center for the Study of the Gulf South and the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute and the Mississippi Humanities Council (MHC) have partnered for the series of lectures which explains the significant role that food plays in our culture. The series will continue through the spring semester at Southern Miss with support from MHC.
“Food is such an exciting topic and the lecture series is a great way for scholars who study food at Southern Miss to begin a conversation with the Hattiesburg community about the food we eat and the culinary cultures we study,” said Dr. Andrew Haley, history professor. “It is so easy to take what we eat for granted, but these highly respected authorities on food culture and food policy remind us that we really are what we eat.”
Weinberg's lecture will focus on the collaboration between private and public interests in providing nutrition and food services, touching on health care, cost consciousness and other federal-state-locality programs. Weinberg holds a Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and also worked on Capitol Hill in Washington D.C. for five years.
Immediately following Weinberg's lecture, Ann McCullen, executive director of the Edwards Street Fellowship Center, will discuss the local impact of that collaboration, highlighting the role of the Center in providing nutritious food for all who are in need.
The second lecture in the series, “Paying Down Debts of Pleasure: Race at the Southern Table,” will be held Oct. 29 at 6 p.m. at the Peck House-Asbury Annex and will feature John T. Edge, director of the Southern Foodways Alliance at the University of Mississippi. In addition, Weinberg will comment on the talk.
For more information about the Southern Miss Research Group, visit the Southern Miss Food Research Group's Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/usmfood or e-mail Dr. Haley at andrew.haleyFREEMississippi.