Asian Studies Program presents Food, Empire, and Global History

The Asian Studies Program presents

Food, Empire, & World History

Food stood at the center of Mussolini’s attempt to occupy Ethiopia and build an Italian Empire in East Africa. Simone Cinotto illustrates the workings of empire in the circulation of migrants, foodways, and colonial practices, as well as African anticolonial resistance. In going beyond simple colonizer/colonized binaries, this study offers a nuanced picture of lived, multisensorial experiences with food in the Italian imperial context.

Simone Cinotto is Professor of Modern History at the University of Gastronomic Sciences in Pollenzo, Italy, where he is the Director of the master’s program in World Food Studies and Reference Professor for Fulbright cultural exchange programs between Italy and the United States. Cinotto is the author of several books, including Gastrofascism and Empire: Food in Italian East Africa, 1935-1941 (Bloomsbury, 2024), The Italian American Table: Food, Family, and Community in New York City (University of Illinois Press, 2013), and Soft Soil Black Grapes: The Birth of Italian Winemaking in California (New York University Press, 2012).

Co-sponsored by the Dresher Center for the Humanities; the Department of American Studies; the Department of Political Science; and the Department of Media and Communication Studies.

This event is open for full participation by all individuals regardless of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, or any other protected category under applicable federal law, state law, and the University's nondiscrimination policy.