Critical Food Studies Network | Student Seminar
Wednesday 19 November 2025, 5pm - 6.30pm
Seminar Room 56, Schwarzman Centre
All welcome
Talk 1
Grains of Wheat and Sand: The British Mandate of Iraq and the Cereals that Shaped it (1920-32) (Joseph DeRosa)
Abstract: While journalists often ‘follow the money’, in this talk I propose to ‘follow the grain’. I will first discuss: (1) the political geography of wheat cultivation in early 20th-century Iraq followed by (2) the colonial state’s regulation of access to wheat markets as a means of control, and finally (3) the impact of disruptions to wheat cultivation and the grain trade on local communities. Along the way, I will attempt to show how the social and political history of Iraq can be understood through an examination of this staple crop.
Biography: Joseph DeRosa is a 4th-year DPhil student in history. His research examines the policing and administration of nomads through the establishment of governmental camel corps in the British Mandate of Iraq (1920-32). The desert police forces that took shape through fits and starts in the 1920s gradually came to appropriate important aspects of shaikhly power (e.g. security, livelihood, redress), introducing new and newly intrusive forms of governance through familiar idioms and ultimately reshaping the societies they began to police. The system of desert policing that emerged in Iraq also enjoyed a long life as it spread throughout the British empire in the Middle East taking root in: Transjordan (1930s), Hadhramaut (1940s), and Trucial Oman (1950s). The project raises importation questions about nomad-state relations, colonial mediators, indirect rule, and indigenous forms of knowledge.
Talk 2
Early-Modern Cultural Exchange Through the Lens of Cookbooks: Comparing the Adoption of American Crops (Chilli and Potato) in East Asia and Western Europe (Niamh Calway)
Abstract: Chillies and potatoes, both crops originating in the Americas, entered Europe and East Asia in the late 15th to early 16thcenturies. Whilst these crops were adopted as culinary ingredients in both regions, the speed and patterns through which they were adopted differ greatly. This presentation investigates and compares the initial adoption these crops as culinary ingredients by writers in East Asia and Western Europe, as well as offering suggestions as to how and why the crops eventually made their way into the cuisines of East Asia and Western Europe, albeit at different paces. This chapter will discuss the socio-economic associations the crops developed, the reluctance of eaters to replace traditional staple foods, the value of simplicity and moderation in early-modern high cuisines, and the impact of traditional medical systems as key factors affecting the crops’ uptake in elite cuisines.
Biography: Niamh Calway is a fourth year DPhil candidate in the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Oxford. Her thesis focuses on the culinary impact of American crops in East Asia as compared with Western Europe, using culinary writings as a lens through which to track the social and cultural implications of the adoption of new crops.
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