Event report: Food + Faith

On February 11, responding to emergent interests amongst Cambridge Interfaith Research Forum members, Dr Anastasia Badder, Dr Stefan Fa, and Prof Jörg Haustein welcomed Professor Heather Sharkey (University of Pennsylvania) to kick off an exploratory discussion around faith & food. 

In recent decades, the humanities have seen a turn towards the material, sensory, and embodied aspects of religious life.  This move has been analytically and methodologically stimulating, but it has primarily focused on single religious communities.  

Meanwhile, Research Forum scholars have been wondering about materiality in the context of interreligious encounters, approaching these questions from various directions – including food.  Following a series of enthusiastic informal conversations about food and faith across the Forum and the serendipity of Prof Sharkey’s presence in the UK, this event aimed to bring interested scholars together around a shared table.  

The event opened with a word from Dr Badder outlining CIP’s focus on the materiality of interreligious encounters (seen in recent projects such as the conference on the Materiality of inter-religious encounters and CIP’s contribution to Water efficiency in faith & diverse communities).  Next, attendees introduced themselves and their interests in food.  It was wonderful to see the diversity of trajectories, disciplines, research questions and impact goals, and methodologies in the room!

Commensality v. gastro-diplomacy

After introductions, Prof Sharkey presented her teaching and research on food, faith, and commensality.  Concisely summarizing her expansive work, Prof Sharkey walked attendees through class projects, such as Wikipedia article writing and communal cooking activities, and her research on commensality and/in opposition to gastro-diplomacy. Dr Fa then responded, introducing his own work on Muslim foodways and aid in London. Together, they made a clear case for greater attention to food, cooking, and commensality in religious life far beyond expected discussions of, for instance, dietary law. 

The discussion was then opened up to the group.  The conversation ranged from articulations of speech and food/eating and gastro-musicology to intersections of food, gender, and cultural heritage to how to grapple with both the positive orientations of commensality and the exclusions or conflicts that sometimes lead people to or inhibit them from meeting around food to what the notion of commensality offers as a heuristic and practice.  

We concluded with a brief brainstorm about where this rich exchange might next lead.  A number of exciting possibilities were raised, so keep an eye on this space for future events and opportunities for collaboration around faith & food!

—Report courtesy of Dr Anastasia Badder, February 2025