Thursday, April 18, 2013
2:15-5:00 p.m. Theresa Lang Community and Student Center, Arnhold Hall, 55 West 13th Street, 2nd floor
Session 1: FOOD SCARCITY AND MIGRATIONThroughout
history, lack of food has led to population migration. Today migrant
workers play a crucial role in food production, often working under
extreme conditions and out of the public eye.
A. Food Scarcity and MigrationArup Maharatna, professor, Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics (India); author,
The Demography of Famines: An Indian Historical Perspective (OUP, 1996)
B. Climatic Change, Food and Livelihood Insecurity, and Human Mobility: New Findings and Implications for PolicyKoko Warner,
head of the Environmental Migration, Social Vulnerability, and
Adaptation Section, United Nations University–Institute for Environment
and Human Security
C. International Refugee Law and the Right to FoodJames Hathaway,
James E. and Sarah A. Degan Professor of Law and director of the
Program in Refugee and Asylum Law, University of Michigan Law School
Moderator:
Sakiko Fukuda-Parr, professor of international affairs, The New School for Public Engagement
6:00-7:30 p.m. Tishman Auditorium, 66 West 12th Street
Session 2: KEYNOTE ADDRESS ON THE PLIGHT OF MIGRANT FARMWORKERSIn the United States, the restaurant industry and the agricultural industry, including the increasingly numerous farmers' markets, depend
on migrant workers. They perform most of the hard physical work,
usually out of view of the consumer, while their position in society is
marginal at best.
Dolores Huerta,
co-founder (with César Chávez) and first vice president emeritus,
United Farm Workers of America, AFL-CIO (UFW); president, Dolores Huerta
Foundation
Moderator:
Saru Jayaraman,
director, Food Labor Research Center, UC Berkeley Center for Labor
Research and Education; co-founder and co-director, Restaurant
Opportunities Centers United (ROC-United); author,
Behind the Kitchen Door (Cornell University Press)
Friday, April 19, 2013
10:00 a.m.-12:45 p.m. Tishman Auditorium, 66 West 12th StreetSession 3: FOOD BUSINESS AND THE AMERICAN DREAM: GATEWAY OR OBSTACLE?Migrants
engage in small-scale food production and open small restaurants as a
way of achieving economic independence and creating economic
opportunities for their children.
A. Migrant Workers in the KitchenSaru Jayaraman,
director, Food Labor Research Center, University of California,
Berkeley, Center for Labor Research and Education; co-founder and
co-director, Restaurant Opportunities Centers United (ROC-United);
author,
Behind the Kitchen Door (Cornell University Press)
B. Migrant Women's Labor Ellen Ernst Kossek,
Basil S. Turner Professor of Management, Krannert School of
Management & Research, and director of the Susan Bulkeley Butler
Center for Leadership Excellence, Purdue University
C. The Immigrant Restaurateur and the American City: Taste, Toil, and the Politics of InhabitanceKrishnendu Ray, associate professor and chair, Department of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health, New York University; author,
The Migrant's Table: Meals and Memories in Bengali-American Households (Temple University Press, 2004)
D. New York City Food Cart Vendors Sean Basinski, lawyer; founder and director, Street Vendor Project, Urban Justice Center
Moderator:
Alexandra Délano,
assistant professor of global studies and coordinator, International
Center for Migration, Ethnicity, and Citizenship (ICMEC), The New School
for Social Research; author,
Mexico and Its Diaspora (CUP, 2011)
Your Food Is on Its Way
12:45-2:45 p.m. (Vera List Courtyard, adjacent to the John Tishman auditorium lobby) The
Vera List Center for Art and Politics presents a project by artist
Annie Shaw on the livelihoods of deliverymen in the food industry. Food
delivery is part of the fabric of life in New York City, a service
provided by a transient workforce that remains largely invisible to the
public it serves. The very statement “your food is on its way” avoids
any reference to the person delivering the meals. This project exposes
the material reality of four individual deliverymen's physical labor
through the tools they use, the routes they take, the money they make,
the languages they speak, and the food they consume.
2:45-5:00 p.m. Tishman Auditorium, 66 West 12th Street
Session 4: RE-CREATING HOME IN THE UNITED STATESMany
immigrants cope with the dislocation and disorientation they experience
by using food to re-create a sense of home and identity. This panel
explores how migrant cultures produce and reproduce a familiar sense of
place in their domestic environment through cooking and other
food-related practices.
A. Food, Identity, and Cultural ReproductionFabio Parasecoli, associate professor and coordinator of Food Studies, The New School for Public Engagement; author of
The History of Food in Italy: Place, Power, Identity (forthcoming)
B. "Old Stock" Tamales and Migrant Tacos: Preserving
Traditions in the Nineteenth-Century Southwest and Recreating Home in
Present-Day “Manhatitlán”Jeffrey Pilcher, professor of history, University of Minnesota; author,
Planet Taco: A Global History of Mexican Food (OUP, 2012)
C. "Roti and Doubles" as Comfort Foods for the Trinidadian Diaspora in Canada and the United StatesDwaine Plaza, professor of sociology, Oregon State University
D. Re-creating the Chinese HomeYong Chen, associate professor of history and Asian American studies, University of California, Irvine; author,
Chinese San Francisco 1850-1943: A Transpacific Community (Stanford, 2000)
Moderator:
Hasia Diner,
professor of Hebrew and Judaic studies and history, Paul S. and Sylvia
Steinberg Professor of American Jewish History, and director of the
Goldstein-Goren Center for American Jewish History, New York University
6:00-7:30 p.m. Tishman Auditorium, 66 West 12th Street
Session 5: WRITERS ON FOOD AND MIGRATIONA panel of
notable writers read fiction and nonfiction in which food is used to
explore community building, alienation, and assimilation among
immigrants to the United States and other countries. The panel is
presented by the School of Writing at The New School for Public
Engagement.
Panelists:
Aurora Almendral, freelance writer, documentary film director, and journalist for Feet in 2 Worlds
Monique Truong, author of
Bitter in the Mouth (Random House, 2010) and
The Book of Salt (Houghton Mifflin, 2003)
Marie Myung-Ok Lee, author of
Somebody's Daughter (Beacon Press, 2006)
Tiphanie Yanique, assistant professor, School of Writing; author of
How to Escape from a Leper Colony (Graywolf Press, 2010)
Moderator:
Luis Jaramillo, associate chair, Writing Program, The New School; co-editor of the journal
The Inquisitive Eater: New School Food
