Food and Food Cultures in the Global South: Aesthetics, Intersections and Mediations
12–14 February 2026
co-hosted by
The Department of English, Bangalore University, Jnanabharathi Campus, Bengaluru-560056
Food and food cultures serve as crucial sites for performance, story-telling, memorialization, identitarian politics, ritualistic practice and assertions of power and cultural capital. They also facilitate a fertile field of critical inquiry in terms of intergenerational trauma, ecological ethics, colonial and postcolonial structures and resistance, migration and connectivity. The multiple ways of thinking, preparing and consuming food enable one to understand it as a site mediating complex social relationships and self-representation in diverse cultural and literary texts and contexts.
Food and foodways symbolize types of cultural capital which in turn influences larger concerns of identity and identity formation. Food is part of rituals and ceremonies that span almost all occasions of human existence – whether as offering or for consumption. Processes of resistance and resilience also find reflection in multiple food representations. Within an expanding food literacy, both public and domestic spaces highlight the historical politics of food and eating. The realpolitik of food production narrates tales of exploitation, appropriation and marginalization.
Understanding gastro semantics, culinary cosmopolitanism and gastro-tourism enables both informed understanding and a rethinking of one’s relationship with food at local and global levels. Theorizing food requires an interdisciplinary approach involving ethnographic, historical, geographical, political, literary, aesthetic, gender, ethnic, agricultural, economic, nutrition and cultural studies. Food activism focuses on seed sovereignty, farmers’ markets, and eating disorders. An epistemology of embodiment and hierarchy can be constructed in the politics of who cooks, who serves and who eats.
Sub-ThemesDigital gastronomy and food aesthetics
Food practices: rituals, ceremonies and offerings
Food, faith and taboo: religious laws and transgressions
Gastronomic and taste philosophies
Gastro-feminism and masculinities: gender, food and culture
Disability and Food practices
Food and food culture in cinema, literature and art
Culinary colonialism and the decolonial palate
Food as semiotic system
Kitchen as archive
Kitchen as domestic, commercial, trans or queer performative space
Carnivalesque food and food practices
Food sovereignty: hunger, memory, famine, starvation
Indigenous foodways
Food writing: culinary histories, recipes, menus
Food and human rights
Food distribution and public health
Food activism and advocacy
Urban food practices, diet and nutrition
Food porn and food exotica
Submission GuidelinesAbstracts of 250–300 words with a bio-note of no more than 50 words may be submitted using the submission link by 18th September 2025.
Acceptances will be conveyed by 18th October 2025.
Abstract submission link: https://forms.gle/nJ3eNEMGZyCdnK8i7
CDN Prize 2026
If you wish to participate in the “C.D. Narasimhaiah Prize” for the Best Paper Presented at an Annual Conference, kindly type “Submission for CDN Prize” in the subject line of the email when you send the full paper to iaclalsbuconference2026@gmail.com.
Last date for submission of complete papers: 24th November 2025
For details: https://iaclals.in/cdn-prize/
MMM Prize 2026
IACLALS also announces the next edition of the “Meenakshi Mukherjee Memorial Prize” for the Best Academic Paper published by a member during the previous two years (2024 & 2025).
Submission link: https://forms.gle/bHbF7ZWyM1yWnHoV8
Last date for submission: 18th September 2025
For guidelines: https://iaclals.in/mmm-prize/
Membership
The conference is open only to members of IACLALS. Participants are encouraged to become members before sending abstracts.3-Year Membership: Rs. 1500
Life Membership: Rs. 5000
Annual Membership for Students/Research Scholars: Rs. 1000 (Postgraduate level and above)
For details, contact the Treasurer at: treasurer.iaclals@gmail.com
Registration FeeFaculty: Rs. 3500/-
Research Scholars: Rs. 2500/-
Includes: Lunch, refreshments on conference days, and conference kit.
Mode of payment: To be announced.
Registration dates: 15th November – 15th December 2025
Contact
For all conference-related queries: iaclalsbuconference2026@gmail.com
Accommodation
Participants will make their own arrangements. A list of nearby hotels, guest houses, and homestays will be provided later.
About the Department of English, Bangalore University
Established in 1964, Bangalore University is one of the most prestigious public state universities in Karnataka, with NAAC accreditation of grade A++ (2023) and NIRF ranking of #81 under the ‘University’ category. The Department of English, with an illustrious history, continues to strive for academic excellence, interdisciplinarity, and social responsibility.
Important DatesSubmission of Abstracts: 18th September 2025
Confirmation of Acceptance: 18th October 2025
MMM Prize Submission: 18th September 2025
CDN Prize Submission: 24th November 2025
Receipt of Complete Papers: 31st December 2025
