Chew On This: Interpreting Food in Massachusetts History

At this, the eleventh annual Mass History Conference we will welcome the many small historical organizations and practitioners preserving, interpreting, and deepening the exploration of Massachusetts history.

You are what you eat! Or are you? At this year’s conference, we will explore the meaning and availability of food in Massachusetts History: what we grow, what we eat, food and identity, scarcity and quality. We will once again present a program that is chock-full of excellent hands-on examples of, and workshops in, the best practices in public history. We are planning workshops on topics like doing food demonstrations; conducting oral histories that focus on food and identity; and using public history in reinventing the food system. The conference will also include sessions on American food 101; archives with cookbook and other food-related collections; the history of and current strategies for feeding the hungry in Massachusetts cities and towns; multicultural food ways and local practices; Native American food practices; home economics and other twentieth-century food movements; and preserving agricultural landscapes.

Keynote Address by Filmmaker Ian Cheney, creator of The Search for General Tso (2014) and co-founder of Food Corps.