Food as Power: Between Decolonization and Nationalism of the Gastronomic Culture

Ihor Lylo
RESCHEDULED TO: MON APR 15, 7:00 PM
Hall Center Conference Hall (also online at www.crowdcast.io/c/lylo)

Ihor Lylo is a historian whose research focuses on the cultural significance and influence of Eastern European gastronomic traditions, particularly on Ukrainian cuisine. In this talk, Lylo argues that traditional gastronomic practices of social and religious groups play a crucial role in shaping collective memory. This poses a danger to totalitarian regimes that use food and supply security as a tool of terror or political propaganda.

Artificial famines or even threats of their use remain in the memory of oppressed societies and have real consequences for the social behavior of citizens. At the same time, there are fears that the desire of postcolonial countries to use food traditions in building a new identity may lead to the strengthening of “gastronomic nationalism.” The discussion about the balance between these issues is an excellent opportunity to reflect on whether we are what we eat.

Lylo graduated with a Ph.D. at the Ivan Franko National University in Lviv (Ukraine) and was a visiting professor at Jagiellonian University (Krakow, Poland) and at the University of California in San Diego as a Fulbright Fellow and member of the Scholar at Risk Program. Lylo began working in January as a visiting assistant professor at the University of Kansas.