Student Spotlights
Join us for a fascinating seminar where we’ll be spotlighting the diverse work of three students in our network. If you plan on attending this event, please RSVP here: tinyurl.com/587kjdmh.

Kshitij Jain, ‘Material Dependency and Cultural Intervention: Some Perspectives on Food Regulations in Digambara Jain Monasticism’
Kshitij Jain is a postgraduate student in the second year of an MPhil in Classical Indian Religion at Linacre College. Kshitij holds an undergraduate degree in Sanskrit (Hons.) from the University of Delhi, with research interests including the social history of medieval Jainism, Sanskrit and Prakrit literature and Classical Indian legal tradition.

Abstract: Jainism—one of the earliest Indian religions—is divided into two sects: Digambara and Śvetāmbara, with the former distinguished by its practice of nude monasticism. This presentation examines the food regulations in Digambara monasticism to highlight the ‘material dependency’ of monks on the lay community for food, as they withdraw from food production and rely exclusively on procuring ‘cooked food.’ This dependency fosters a monk’s ‘cultural intervention,’ analysed through the three Ps of food: procurement, preparation, and provision. By focusing on these regulations, this presentation aims to explore social relations and practices in Indian religions through the lens of Digambara Jainism.

Lewis Ebert, ‘Culinary Cosmologies: Proteins and Customs in Mongol China’
Lewis Ebert is studying for an MPhil in Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, with a specific focus on the food culture of the medieval period in Mongolia and China. He is particularly interested in the history of rituals, foodways, ecology, and medicine.

Abstract: The study of dietary manuals goes beyond food, delving into customs, medicine, ecology, and environment. By examining nourishment in specific eras, we construct a social history revealing how individuals engaged with their surroundings and cosmologies. My paper compares Hu Sihui’s Yinshan Zhengyao, a Yuan-era text celebrating Mongol dietary richness, with Hua Jing’s Yinshi Xuzhi, a lesser-studied Ming-era manual. Focusing on proteins and associated customs, I explore their differing perspectives on food, medicine, and ecology. These contrasts illuminate the political, ethnic, and spiritual differences between Mongol and Han Chinese cultures, showcasing the deeper significance of dietary texts.

Sacha Mouzin, ‘Shepherds in the shadows: an ethnography of pastoralism in Mount Lebanon’
Sacha Mouzin is a 3rd year Franco-Lebanese DPhil student in Social Anthropology, having just returned last summer from one year of ethnographic fieldwork in Lebanon, living few days a week with one family of pastoralists and interviewing people along the food supply chain of meat, milk and cheese. Sacha’s general academic interests revolve around environmental anthropology, the anthropology of food consumption and production and political ecology.

Abstract: The future of food production is, and will continue to be, a major challenge for humanity in the coming decades. The current practices of pastoralism in Lebanon constitute an intriguing paradox in such a context of severe multifaceted crisis, food insecurity and critique of industrial agriculture. Whether pastoralism is on the verge of disappearing, contributes to the ongoing desertification and ecological destruction or is essential to produce food in such a context is an ongoing debate and the focus of my thesis. In this presentation, I will give a general overview of my thesis delving into themes of hired labour in the context of pastoralism, the challenges of herding in an increasingly urban environment, the importance of pastoralism for sociality in ‘empty’ rural villages and the rise in the commercialization of ‘baladi’ (local) food in Lebanon in the context of a ruralisation of some of the elite’s imagery and ideals.

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Date: 24 February 2025, 17:00
Venue: Radcliffe Humanities, Woodstock Road OX2 6GG
Venue Details: Colin Matthew Room
Speaker: Various Speakers
Organising department: The Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities (TORCH)
Part of: TORCH: Critical Food Studies Network
Booking required?: Required
Booking url: https://tinyurl.com/587kjdmh
Audience: Public
Editor: Belinda Clark