Food as a Catalyst for Tolerance and Peace
With Darra Goldstein
Content
Join us for a lecture with Darra Goldstein, the third and final event in the fall Peace Tables series.
When we share food with others, we strengthen social bonds—just think of the word companion, which comes from the Latin “with bread.” Tasting new flavors opens not just our palates but our minds. Although food can be divisive when used as a weapon, it also has the great power to unite. This lecture will explore the ways in which food can promote greater understanding in our local communities and in the world.
All UMass community members are welcome. Please RSVP to help us plan for attendance.
About Darra Goldstein
Darra Goldstein, the Willcox B. and Harriet M. Adsit Professor of Russian, Emerita, at Williams College, is the founding editor of Gastronomica and editor in chief of the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Food Studies. She also serves as series editor of California Studies in Food and Culture from the University of California Press.
Darra has won numerous prizes for her work in food, including James Beard and IACP awards. She’s the author of eight cookbooks, including The Georgian Feast (the 1994 IACP Julia Child Cookbook of the Year) and Beyond the North Wind: Russia in Recipes and Lore. Her latest cookbook is Cultured, a major compendium on fermented and preserved foods, while Russian Lessons, her memoir cum cultural study of Russia, will appear from Farrar, Straus & Giroux in 2027.
Darra has consulted for the Council of Europe on using food as a tool for tolerance and diversity and has held distinguished fellowships in food studies at the University of Toronto and the University of Melbourne. In 2020 she received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Association of Culinary Professionals. Darra sits on the board of the Julia Child Foundation for Gastronomy and the Culinary Arts and is a member of the advisory “Kitchen Cabinet” of the Smithsonian National Museum of American History.
Sponsored by the College of Education, the College of Humanities & Fine Arts, the College of Natural Sciences, the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, and the Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures, in collaboration with UMass Dining.