Lecture | Leiden University Nationalism Network
Panel Food and nationalism
- Atsuko Ichijo, Fabio Parasecoli, Peter Scholliers
- Date
- Monday 21 September 2026
- Time
- Series
- Leiden University Nationalism Network events
- Location
- Online via Zoom
Description
That certain dishes or beverages are routinely associated with particular communities is a truism. Rarely, however, do we consider the strangeness of such associations. What is Italian about pasta? What makes a restaurant Chinese or a pub Irish? How is it decided which recipes or ingredients are worthy of representing a community, and which factors drive such an identification? In this event, our speakers will explore the tension-ridden and ambiguous connection between food and belonging and will highlight the key role played by gastronomy in the crystallization and reproduction of national communities.
Participants
Atsuko Ichijo is Honorary Research Fellow at the Institute for Crime & Justice Policy Research (ICPR) and one of the greatest contemporary experts on the connection between food and nationalism. She is the author of seminal books in this field such as Food, national identity and nationalism: From everyday to global politics (2022, with Ronald Ranta) or The emergence of national food (2019, with Venetia Johannes and Ronald Ranta), although her scholarly interests also include the search for the origins and nature of nationalist ideas. On this latter subject, she has recently published Nationalism and Subjectivity: East Asian Experiences (2025), where she challenges the European origins of this phenomenon based on a rigorous study of East Asian societies.
Fabio Parasecoli is Professor of Food Studies in the Nutrition and Food Studies Department at New York University. As a scholar, Parasecoli has devoted extended attention to the cultural politics of food both in the present and throughout history. Apart from writing Al Dente: A History of Food in Italy (2014), he has also explored the relationship between food in identity in articles such as “Food, identity, and cultural reproduction in immigrant communities” (2014) and books like Feasting our eyes: Food films and cultural identity in the United States (2017) or, more recently, Gastronativism: Food, Identity, politics (Columbia University Press, 2022). What these studies show, among other things, is that social constructions of food as heritage, while induced by the economic forces of globalization, have often played into the hands of xenophobic nationalist projects, serving as powerful symbols of in-group belonging and tools for exclusion.
Peter Scholliers is Emeritus Professor of socio-economic history at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB). His scholarly interests include, among others, the history of social inequality and living standards, food, wages and prices, and material culture from 1800 to the present day. He has authored various monographs and articles on the topic of food with a special emphasis on Belgium, including the recent A history of Bread: Consumers, Bakers and Public Authorities since the 18th century (2024). It is possible to encounter, within his profuse output, a constant and long-standing fascination with the intersection between gastronomy and identity, manifested both in classical volumes like Food, Drink and Identity. Cooking, Eating and Drinking in Europe since the Middle Ages (2001) or in more recent contributions like “Foodways and nationhood” (2023).
How to Attend
Open to all staff and students — no need to register in advance.
The meeting can also be attended via Zoom:
Zoom link: https://universiteitleiden.zoom.us/j/67349928280?pwd=0Uwe7aJr7BfGjMSmuqFWfCWo5FzVO0.1
Meeting-ID: 673 4992 8280
Password: 2fnNZ+ze
Instructions for participation: https://universiteitleiden.zoom.us/meetings/67349928280/invitations?signature=EMKni8Z1eg0uz5L06aaYss69g6GrE08MMcMsYFr-n0U