Bobby J. Smith, II Tuesday, March 26, 2024
Assistant Professor of African American Studies 5:15 – 6:30 p.m.
103 Bevier Hall, 905 South Goodwin, Urbana, IL
Food, politics, and power are inextricably linked, and “food power” is a description of how food can be weaponized and used as a form of control between groups in times of conflict. Food power is exercised when one group withholds food, or the means to access or produce it, from another group to manipulate the outcome of the conflict. Throughout history, food has been used simultaneously as a weapon to reinforce racial dominance and as a form of resistance.
Bobby J. Smith, II has recently written “Food Power Politics: The Food Story of the Mississippi Civil Rights Movement.” is a 2023-2024 Research Fellow for the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation initiative Public Libraries Partnering on Food Justice, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and a 2023-2023 USDA National Agricultural Library (NAL) Scholar-in-Residence; he has previously been a NEH Fellow and an ACLS Fellow.
*If registration is full, email chp@illinois.edu to be added to waitlist.
