From student/faculty research presentations and panels to local brewery tours, Winthrop University will be hosting the 2019 World of Food Conference as a way to bring an interdisciplinary conversation about food to the table. The conference is set to take place from Thursday, Feb. 21 to Saturday, Feb. 23. This conference was put on by Winthrop’s interdisciplinary program with the help of about 20 different co-sponsors that range from the department of human nutrition to the college of visual and performing arts.
According to Winthrop professor Ginger Williams, the department of interdisciplinary studies hosted a water conference in 2015 which, much like the food conference plans to do, brought a conversation throughout multiple disciplines.
“At that [water conference] we asked people what would be a good idea for the next conference and the idea of food came up and so [interdisciplinary studies] would like to put on an interdisciplinary conference every 3 years,” Williams said.
As some may think food is only a topic within agriculture or nutrition based studies, the world of food conference sets out to disprove that. This conference will showcase that food touches every discipline and many parts of people’s lives and cultures.
“Food crosses every discipline,” Williams said, “its politics, its nutrition, its health, its psychology.”
The idea of food crossing every discipline is seen just by looking at the World of Food Conference Program. There will be presentations on how food relates to the economy, how food relates to Southern culture, the history of food, food in international settings, food in religion and much more.
However, research presentations and panels will not be the only aspects of the food conference. There will be speakers, dinners and brewery tours going on throughout the entire weekend of the food conference.
“On Thursday night [of the conference] we’re having a reception for the keynote speaker [John T. Edge]. Dan “The Pig Man” Huntly whose somewhat famous in his own right locally, he’s a big barbeque man, is going to be doing a reception for John T. Edge our keynote speaker at the Rock Hill Brewery Company downtown and everyone who is registered for the conference can come to that. This is highlighting a local brewery and Rock Hill is a new beer scene,” Williams said.
In addition to the keynote speaker and barbeque reception Chow Club, an organization from Atlanta, will be coming to the conference on Saturday night at 7:15 p.m. at Oakland Avenue Presbyterian Church to serve an Ethiopian dinner. Chow Club is known to cook meals highlighting international cuisines. This dinner is not included with registration for the conference. Those who wish to go must register separately for this and it is an extra $40. Also, on Saturday after the conference for $20 dollars there will be a local walking Rock Hill brew tour.
The conference kicks off on Thursday night, Feb. 21 with Edge, a Southern food expert and author of the “Potlikker Papers”, as the keynote speaker giving a talk about Southern food at 7 p.m. in Plowden Auditorium. This keynote speech is free to the public and Winthrop community and is a cultural event for students.
Registering for the conference will get you in to the reception on Thursday night at the Rock Hill Brewing Company led by Huntley, a lunch on Friday and a reception in the art gallery on Friday night. Registering for the conference is $15 for students. The interdisciplinary studies department urges students, faculty members and community members to register for the conference to be able to experience and learn about the ways food affects everyone’s lives both locally and internationally.
“It’s important to talk across disciplines. I think that’s the most important thing to do and so you have to find a topic people can talk about across disciplines because I don’t think we usually think that we have that much in common…this [food conference] gives us something to talk about. Other than that, food is just such an important topic because we have to have it to live and the way we eat it affects our minds, our bodies, our policies…it’s just an important topic that touches everyone,” Williams said.
Ultimately, the food conference looks to be a big hit throughout the Winthrop and Rock Hill community, bringing up a topic that everyone is connected to.
