Digital Commons Network^™

“Read This - And Keep It Carefully”: Emergency Recipes In Ireland (1939–1945), Gary Thompson

Dublin Gastronomy Symposium

Cookbooks published at a time of armed conflict contain practical advice on managing food shortages paired with patriotic nationalistic zeal. This paper examines the advice given to Irish households on cookery and household management in the pages of cookbooks and pamphlets published between 1939 and 1945, a period of political, economic and food supply upheaval colloquially referred to as The Emergency in Ireland. The recipes, advertisements and household advice reflect a growing crisis when the outcome of war was unknown to authors, while, in the domestic sphere, food and fuel shortages were increasingly impacting the home cook. Official food supply …

“Our Culture Is Larger / Than The Life Of The Chick Pea”: A Thematic Analysis Of Food And Foodways In Palestinian Poetry From The Twentieth To The Twenty-First Century, Basmah Arshad

Dublin Gastronomy Symposium

Since the early twentieth century, Palestinians have used poetry as a means of remembering and celebrating their homeland amid its occupation and colonization. Naomi Shihab Nye, Rashid Husayn, and Zeina Azzam are understudied poets of Palestinian heritage. All three experiment with varying depictions of Palestinian food and foodways, and placing their poetry into conversation enables a greater understanding of how and why food is an enduring metaphorical vehicle for mourning, soothing, or surviving the Palestinian poet’s physical and emotional alienation from Palestine. There is a generational distinction in how poets identify said alienation. Husayn, who comes from an older generation …

Chronicles Of Despair And Hope: Food Wars On The Frontline Of Motherhood, Gemma M. Carney

Dublin Gastronomy Symposium

In this paper I use first-person literary accounts of the hope and despair experienced by women when feeding infants and young children. In Soldier Sailor, Claire Kilroy offers a vivid depiction of attempts to get healthy and nutritious food into an evasive toddler. In her memoir, Making Babies: stumbling into motherhood, Anne Enright dedicates two whole pages to the word “haNang.” The word portrays endless crying of her breast-fed baby if she ate anything other than brown rice. These visceral depictions of mothers’ experiences of feeding children raise interesting questions for gastronomic studies. Some of our most treasured childhood food …

What My Grandma Ate, What My Grandma Wrote: Culinary Memory, Migration, And Changing Foodways In A Cretan–Turkish Household, Sedef Özgönül Donuktan

Dublin Gastronomy Symposium

This paper explores the difference between daily eating habits (what is “eaten”) and handwritten recipe notebooks (what is “written”) within a Cretan-Turkish kinship network influenced by migration and resettlement. By combining oral history interviews with five women and analysing 242 notebook recipes, the study shows that these handwritten books are not just passive records of daily meals. Instead, they serve as selective domestic archives shaped by a “festive bias,” standardisation, and social value. The research indicates that while routine meals (such as stews) depend on embodied, unrecorded knowledge, the notebooks mainly contain special dough recipes using modern industrial ingredients like …

A Sisyphean Carrot In Waiting For Godot, Thierry Dubost

Dublin Gastronomy Symposium

In Waiting for Godot, Beckett employs a variety of strategies to expose what it means to be human. Among them, one notes a recurring emphasis on eating scenes that reflect a lurking existential crisis illustrated by the characters’ failure to follow expected standards of commensality. In this respect, if one refers to Brillat-Savarin’s maxim “Tell me what kind of food you eat and I will tell you what kind of man you are,” one could start from physiological features that are given pride of place in the play to ponder over the importance of unexpected forms of nourishment as revealing …

Objects Of Wartime Resistance And Food Scarcity, Nathalie Cooke

Dublin Gastronomy Symposium

This paper considers closely three missives crafted by individuals suffering life- threatening duress during wartime incarceration, one during World War One, and two during the Second World War. Only one of these three survived beyond wartime. All three examples involve food: messages embroidered on or about the sourcing of daily bread or describing dishes that were available only in memory. Nevertheless, the very act of crafting objects to carry communications beyond the dire circumstances in which these prisoners of war found themselves embodied hope and defiance. While acknowledging and describing the very different contexts of each of these examples, I …

Crisis, Hope And The Headline: Agenda Setting In England’S Covid Food Story, Dayna Brackley

Dublin Gastronomy Symposium

Panic buying during Covid was a crisis of perception as much as supply. This paper builds on the mixed method content analysis of 209 articles and accompanying images from six high circulation English newspapers, March to July 2020, setting it in the context of calls for civil food resilience and the UK national food strategy. The research shows how the press framed food access, responsibility and risk at a pivotal turning point. Sensationalised language appeared in 89% of articles, 68% carried negative sentiment, and 64% of analysed images showed empty shelves. Supermarkets were the dominant voice, quoted in 62% of …

Where Art Meets The Table: Food, Art, And Culture At The Intersection Of Crisis And Hope, Ciza Zoya

Dublin Gastronomy Symposium

Food is more than sustenance; it is a carrier of memory, identity, and power, shaping both belonging and exclusion. In contemporary art, food has emerged as a critical medium through which these tensions can be explored. This paper argues that food- based art operates at the intersection of crisis and hope, revealing how everyday practices of cooking, sharing, and eating both reflect social hierarchies and create possibilities for connection. Drawing on anthropological perspectives, contemporary art theory, and the author’s own artistic practice, the paper examines how food functions as a social structure shaped by gender, class, caste, and colonial histories. …

Revisiting The Siyez Case: Can We Take A Lesson From Its Exploitation, Learn From The Sorgül Wheat Project, And Hope For A Better Future For Ancient Wheat Landraces?, Aylin Öney Tan, Ebru Baybara Demir

Dublin Gastronomy Symposium

Revisiting the siyez case: Can we take a lesson from its exploitation, learn from the Sorgül Wheat Project, and hope for the better in future? Türkiye is home to the earliest varieties of wheat, some of which are still cultivated or grow wild in remote landscapes of Anatolia. Siyez (Triticum monococcum) has been a staple crop for thousands of years. However, over time, other wheat varieties took over, dominating the market with their higher yield. Siyez was no longer considered commercially valuable and was only grown by peasants for their own consumption or as livestock feed. However, a few decades …

“The Last Fish”: Environmental Collapse And Food Crisis In Pink Slime (2024) By Fernanda Trías, Pepa Lago

Dublin Gastronomy Symposium

At the end of Pink Slime (2024) by Uruguayan writer Fernanda Trías, the unnamed narrator/protagonist eats tuna from a can and drops the empty container in the river, where it “floated for a moment until the water found its way in and dragged it to the bottom.” This scene mirrors the opening of the novel, when a fisherman releases back into the water a fish “so slight that it made no noise as it broke the surface. The last fish.” The presence of the fish, first as a live being and then as a preserved, shelf-stable foodstuff, frame the dystopian …

Crisis And Hope On The Page: Cookbooks And Culinary Resilience In 1980s Poland, Marzena Keating

Dublin Gastronomy Symposium

The 1980s in Poland were defined by shortages, rationing, and the constant struggle to provide meals under conditions of scarcity. Cookbooks published during this period promoted resourcefulness, substitution, and waste avoidance, embedding frugality into everyday cooking. As Kazimiera Pyszkowska notes, “the crisis-induced rationing of certain products and portions that are sometimes insufficient for the body's needs can easily result in significant nutritional deficiencies if food is not managed wisely” (Economically and Deliciously, 1984, 3). Strategies once born of necessity—creative use of leftovers, preservation techniques, and rational management of food—now find echoes in global efforts to reduce waste and build sustainable …

“...Coco Puffs For Dinner?”: Exploring Factors Influencing Meal Patterns, Food Choices, And Solo Dining Experiences Of International Students In Dublin Through Photovoice And Photo Elicitation, Disha Naik

Dublin Gastronomy Symposium

Moving abroad to study is, for many international students, a moment of crisis. Established routines are broken, familiar foodways are left behind, and the daily challenges of cultural adaptation, social isolation along with limited resources affect their food choices. Studies have shed light on the effects of cultural adaptation on foodways among international students (Sergile 2023). While some focus on solo dining experiences, this study focuses on factors that influence meal patterns, food choices, and solo dining experiences in international students in Dublin. Using a blend of two visual qualitative methods; photovoice and photo elicitation interviews, the study engaged with …

Hospitality In Crisis: Deciphering Food Insecurity Among Migrants From A Derridean Perspective, Alexandra Constantinescu, Naz Ali

Dublin Gastronomy Symposium

Food insecurity faced by disadvantaged groups of migrants (i.e., voluntary migrants living in low-income households and forced migrants – namely asylum seekers) undermines the nature of hospitality, creating conditions of inhospitableness associated with hunger, injustice, insecurity, and poverty. This study presents a critical interpretation of hospitality in crisis by concentrating on food insecurity resulting from government and non-government food policies in England, that are inhospitable towards forced migrants – contributing to an area of enquiry with limited research in food and hospitality studies. The study draws on the teachings of Jacques Derrida, particularly his philosophical perspective on (in)hospitality/hostipitality, with conceptualisations …

Dgs Programme 2026, Dgs Committee

Dublin Gastronomy Symposium

This is the full and final Programme for the DGS 2026 - Food and Crisis/Hope, as well as the Map of Producers who furnished the delicious food and drink we serve at lunch over the two days of the event.

Kicau Kericau: The Chirps And Warbles Of A Bird-Human Story, Airien Ludin

Masters Theses

This thesis tells the tale of bird-human relationships and what it means to live alongside one another, subverting the hierarchical view of humans as above birds inherited from colonial history. It asks how the practice of illustration can function as a site of Two-Eyed Seeing, where scientific and local knowledge are held together as an entangled narrative. It also examines how mendongeng (storytelling), as I have experienced it within Indonesian culture and everyday contexts, can help us understand birds as a companion species with their own agency.

This project takes two forms: first, a picture book titled Sun Bird …

Household Hegemon: Domestic And Affective Traces Of Us Influence In Mexico In The 1950s And 1990s, Edgar Solórzano

Masters Theses

“Household Hegemon: Domestic and Affective Traces of US Influence in Mexico in the 1950s and 1990s” is a collection of personal essays, historical research, and fictional texts that examine the impact of US-American soft power on Mexican society. This project expands and deepens the research and work developed during my two-year MFA in Sculpture at RISD, evolving material investigations into a comprehensive written and visual record of the 1950s post-WWII boom and the 1990s post-NAFTA transition. These two decades not only represent the most significant in terms of American influence but also the years in which my parents and I …

Resistant Silence Engraved Trauma, Silence In Domestic Spaces, & Acts Of Resistance, Priyanka Kumar

Masters Theses

This thesis argues that silence surrounding trauma within domestic spaces is not merely an absence of speech or a condition of voicelessness, but it functions as an act of resistance. Focusing on domestic abuse within patriarchal structures, this research examines the ways trauma is embodied, negotiated, and concealed in everyday life. Central in this inquiry is the figure of the “sole witness” to abuse, those who live in close proximity to violence, endure its aftermath and negotiate survival through subtle and often unseen acts of resistance.

I am not attempting to define trauma, but the thesis explores the traces trauma …

Music Therapy For The Treatment Of Body Image Dissatisfaction: Implications For Future Practice, Elizabeth Hope Vance

Honors Projects

Body image dissatisfaction has become a growing concern in recent decades. Negative body image has been linked to anxiety, depression, elevated stress, eating disorders, and relational problems (Smith et al, 2024). Body image can negatively affect a wide variety of populations such as cancer survivors, people diagnosed with eating disorders, and adolescents. Fortunately, recent studies have investigated ways to improve body image perceptions among those affected.  Common treatments for body image dissatisfaction include Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT), and alternative therapies (Peng & Xie, 2021).  Despite social efforts to reduce negative body …

Faith And Flourishing: Describing The Lived Experiences Of Christian Counselors Who Integrate Christian Faith Into Their Wellness, Angela Joy Stanley

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to describe the lived experience of counselors who integrate Christian faith into their wellness. The basis for this study was rooted in the work of Myers and Sweeney’s (2004) model of the indivisible self and the spiritual framework of coping for optimal health as introduced by Walker et al. (2015). Both models provide a holistic approach to wellness that recognizes the complexities of wellbeing which require the integration of multiple dimensions. Further, each model points to spirituality as an essential part of wellness. The research questions that guided this study were as follows: …

Silent Invaders: Stopping The Spread Of The Spotted Lanternfly, Sloane Z. Hall

Masters Theses

The Spotted Lanternfly, an invasive insect originating from China, has rapidly spread across the United States, harming agriculture, forestry, and surrounding ecosystems. It’s destructive feeding behavior severely impacts grapevines, fruit trees, and hardwoods, which directly affects wine production, farm communities, and local environments. The aim of this research was to investigate the biological, ecological, and economic stakes of the infestation, as well as the methods currently used to monitor and control its spread. Specifically, it examines how communication frameworks, design practices, and extension approaches influence producers’ adoption of recommended Integrated Pest Management (IPM) protocols. Through the research, a literature review, …

Reading Indian Newspaper Reports To Uncover Cinematic Misrepresentations Of Rape In Mom (2017) And Guilty (2020), Samikhya Dash, Soumya Jose

Journal of International Women's Studies

Hindi cinema has witnessed a transformation in the portrayal of rape narratives subsequent to India’s Nirbhaya rape case in 2012 and the global #MeToo movement in 2017. The rape narratives released after the #MeToo movement are characterised by a departure from the stereotypical depiction of rape victims as forlorn and vulnerable figures; instead, they are depicted as assertive and empowered survivors that challenge entrenched power dynamics. Hindi films such as Mom (2017) and Guilty (2020) exemplify this paradigm shift by featuring women characters who defy gender stereotypes and resist patriarchal constraints, experience rape trauma syndrome and post-traumatic growth, and embody …

Negotiating Desires For Capital Through Culinary Expression In Balli Kaur Jaswal’S Sugarbread, Ira Gore, Aruni Mahapatra

Journal of International Women's Studies

Balli Kaur Jaswal’s Sugarbread (2016) illustrates how race and class are negotiated through culinary practices in a lower-middle-class Sikh family living in Singapore. Through acts of shopping for groceries, cooking local Singaporean cuisine, and rejecting the communal temple food associated with shame and social discrimination, the novel highlights the family’s aspirations of social mobility shaped by the character Jini’s childhood experiences of food and economic scarcity. While the characters in the novel have access to food, their culinary practices are marked by memories of charity and discomfort as a South Asian diasporic family negotiating racialized hierarchies and gendered vulnerability in …

The Concept 'Pollination' And Bee Pan-Trap Color And Uv Reflectance Determine The Taxonomic Compositions Of Bee Taxa Captures Across An Elevation Gradient And Seasons In The Jemez Mountains Of New Mexico, Esther A. Burton, Kelly B. Miller, Paul J. Watson, David C. Witherington, Steven Poe, David Lightfoot

Biology ETDs

This thesis examines the pollinator concept and tests how sampling methods shape bee communities. Chapter 1 provides a conceptual and philosophical analysis, arguing that pollination is a process and that pollinators are context-dependent functional roles rather than fixed taxonomic categories. It traces the concept’s development from natural history to ecological theory, introduces a dual-goal model separating plant reproduction from visitor foraging, and proposes a classification framework based on evidentiary certainty and pollination potential to resolve ambiguity in pollination research.

Chapter 2 applies these ideas empirically by evaluating how pan-trap color and ultraviolet (UV) reflectance influence bee assemblages across elevation and …

A Hospital Spiritual Care Volunteer Program: Embodying Vocation And Decreasing Social Isolation And Loneliness In Adults Sixty-Five And Older, Stacy L. Auld

Doctor of Ministry Projects and Theses

Social isolation and loneliness have become familiar terms since the COVID-19 pandemic, but the problem did not start there. We have seen a steady rise in the number of people who face social isolation and loneliness over the past fifty years, and now research shows that this problem is impacting people’s health, especially in adults sixty-five and older. These social diagnoses are being addressed by public policy and in health care settings, but they should also be addressed by United Methodist clergy in their care for their parishioners. Therefore, I am writing this dissertation to my clergy colleagues to raise …

The Formation Of Indian Health Services Within Imperial And Settler-Colonial Contexts, Jillian E. Grisel

American Studies ETDs

This dissertation examines the Indian Health Services as a Cold War biosecurity apparatus, showing how infectious disease was weaponized to dismantle treaty obligations, reorganize tribal lands into “service areas,” and reclassify Indigenous nations as surveilled populations. Against this carceral health economy, Indigenous nations refused. From the 1969 Alcatraz occupation to the 1976 Puyallup takeover of Cushman Indian Hospital, Native activists reclaimed health facilities as sovereign spaces, insisting that care is not a discretionary service but a treaty right grounded in land and kinship. Methodologically, I combine historical-legal analysis of congressional debates, Public Health Service reports, and IHS data with counter-archives …

Assessing Legacy Collections: Analyzing The Preservation, Recovery, And Interpretive Value Of Archaeobotanical Remains From Site 15le70 (Pine Crest Rockshelter), Lee County, Kentucky, Jennifer Carroll

Graduate Final Projects

This paper uses the archaeobotanical assemblage from Site 15Le70, a multi-excavated and extensively looted rockshelter in eastern Kentucky, while opening new lines of inquiry into gendered labor and practice during the Archaic-Woodland transition. Because legacy collections are often dispersed across institutions and/or research projects, the materials from any single site may be fragmented, as was the case for 15Le70. Such collections can be overlooked, yet this investigation into 15Le70’s archaeobotanical assemblage demonstrates that partial or scattered datasets can yield meaningful results and hold the potential to fill gaps in the archaeological record left by looting.

In this study, a small …

The Culinary History Of Korean Immigrants 1903-2025, Eun Soo Han

Masters Theses, 2020-current

This paper is an exploration into the role that Korean dishes like Kalbi, Korean marinated or grilled meat, and Kimchi, a fermented vegetable or fruit dish played in the development of the Korean Immigrant community and the cultivation of cultural identity of Korean immigrants. This paper offers a brief overview into the history some of the major dishes that forms the core of the three sections of this article with Kalbi being the main theme for the section on Korean immigration to Hawaii in 1903 and Kimchi being the main dish discussed in the second to third section that explores …

Spaces Of Our Own: Reclaiming Community In Jaipur's Informal Settlements, Daisy Bhambhani

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

India’s rapid urbanization has resulted in fragmented urban fabrics, where women and children remain in vulnerable positions. They face systemic barriers in education, health, and social belonging due to under resourced environments. Despite the nation’s commitments to gender equality and the right to education, slum environments continue to lack adequate infrastructure that supports learning and collective well being. Architecture has the potential to combat these challenges by creating spaces that promote social inclusivity.

While architects and planners have recognized the increasing need for inclusive spaces, most projects do not explore how a built form itself can create empowerment within marginalized …

Avicenna On Non-Rational Voluntary Motion, Hamed Shirmohammadi

Dissertations - ALL

This dissertation investigates Avicenna’s theory of non-rational voluntary motion. Avicenna’s most significant innovation in this domain is his theory of the internal senses, and in particular, his account of the estimative faculty (wahm) and its proper objects, the intentions (ma'nā). Intentions are non-sensible features of perceived particulars—such as the hostility of a wolf—that carry evaluative significance for the perceiving animal. This dissertation argues that understanding the nature of intentions is the key to explaining how a non-rational animal can pursue goals through relatively complex courses of action. Avicenna recognizes two ways in which intentions are acquired: through instinct and through …

Confederate Women In The Field Of Nursing And Their Impact On Southern Women’S Roles In Society, Laura Leigh L. Prater

Theses

During the Civil War, Confederate women had the opportunity to go to work as nurses. The majority of these women had never been allowed to take on roles beyond the domestic sphere in antebellum society.  Despite most of these women having limited medical training, they developed an expertise in nursing, extraordinary organization skills and gained respect for their achievements.  Their achievements proved that women were able to do far more than many in the South believed prior to the war.  This paper will show how the demands of war opened doors of greater opportunity for women in the South for …