FOOD STORIES: NAVIGATING THE ACADEMY WITH CULTURAL LESSONS FROM THE KITCHEN

Food, and the culture surrounding food, is a closely held, and powerful, reality that shapes who we are as individuals, as members of varied communities, and invariably, informs who we are as educators and researchers.  This book gives space for the authors to explore not only the impact that food and culture have had, and continue to have, on them as individuals, how that culture and experiences impact them as members of the academy (in teaching, research, and service), but also in providing some guidance to graduate students and junior faculty.  In effect, chapters will explore navigating academic work (teaching, research, and service) through the lens of food and the transferable lessons that can be gleaned from our grandmothers’, mothers’, fathers’, and our own kitchens. 

It is often the case that higher education fosters both imposter syndrome and a workaholic disposition that can be detrimental to teaching and research.  What this book does, then, is not only explore the ways in which what may seem as non-academic work such as cooking a meal can have on our work/life balance but, also, how to incorporate the very lessons of food into who we are as educators, how we teach, and how we approach the work we do broadly.  

Through carefully curated chapters, this text will present a wide array of perspectives across food and cultural regions as well as impart insights from the academy from authors spanning the spectrum of the career. 

Chapter proposals should be:

• 500-1,000 words
• Aligned with the scope of the project
• Formatted to APA 7th Edition

• January 15, 2024 – April 1, 2024: Call for Chapter Proposals 
• April 2024: Finalization of Chapters/Authors List 
• April 2024 – July 2024: Chapter Writing 
• July 1, 2024: Draft Chapters Due to Editors 
• July 15, 2024: Editor Feedback Returned to Authors 
• July 20, 2024: Final Chapters Due 
• July 31, 2024: Submission of Completed Manuscript to MEP 

Use the link below to access the submission form.