The conference The Taste of Others From the experience of Otherness to gastronomic appropriation in Europe from the 18th to the 21st Century, by Baku Slavic University, Nancy II University, Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines University (Research Program NAFTES “New approaches to cultural boundaries”, MSH Lorraine, Topic One), will stand in Baku (Azerbaijan), mid-october 2010.

Otherness has been the subject of a number of important works, particularly in the sociological field. The questioning on the discovery and perception of food and cooking of Others is an opportunity to compare their patterns to theoretical studies case. This questioning, often, but not exclusively, posed in the wake of colonial history or postcolonial studies and more generally marked by the concerns of anthropology and ethnology, was, in consequence, focused on the colonized Other. But does it not also arise, as argued by Sophie Bessis or Faustine Régnier, if the question of Otherness in cuisine is asking about everything which seems to us exotic, only because it isn’t part of our cuisine, even if it came from just across the border ?

Our conference program is part of a larger research programme on « cultural boundaries », launched in the MSH (Maison des Sciences de l’Homme) Lorraine’s framework (Topic One). Cultural differences, quickly transformed at certain periods into cultural conflicts, and from that into the differentiation from the Other, are well known in Europe in terms of language or religion. However, two subjects, both promising in light of their recent bibliography, and doubtless also highly complementary, have been selected to renew in some way the « off centre » approach to this concept : dance and cuisine.

For this conference, there is a call for papers. Proposals for papers (abstract, CV, contact information) must be received before 1st of March 2010.

By :
Rahilya Geybullayeva
Directrice du département d’études des sociétés contemporaines
Université de Versailles

Didier Francfort
Head of the Journalism and Azerbaijani Literature Department
Baku Slavic University

Denis Saillard
Centre d’histoire culturelle
Directeur du CERCLE
Université Nancy II Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines

More on proposals for papers and conference.