Research Institute for the Culture and History of Food and Drink
Rod Phillips
Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada, has recently established a Research Institute for the Culture and History of Food and Drink (RICHFaD). Housed in the Department of History, it will sponsor individual and collaborative research and the dissemination of findings on all aspects of food and drink. The Institute plans to establish links with a wide range of academic, professional, and industry organizations so as to draw upon the broadest range of expertise. It is discussing links with several industry groups, professional organizations, culinary institutions, and university research centres inside and outside Canada. It is hoped that a formal link between the Research Centre at Adelaide and the Carleton Research Institute can be celebrated at the Centre's Second International Conference in July.
One of the first activities of Research Institute will be a 2002 symposium at Carleton University on drinking water (past, present, and future). This is a topic of particular importance in Canada because of a case of polluted water that caused seven deaths in a small Ontario town last year and because of a continuing public debate on the sale of Canadian water to the U.S.
The Institute is also collaborating in the organization of a major international meeting on wine (called "Bacchus to the Future") that will be held in May 2002 at the Cool Climate Oenology and Viticulture Institute at Brock University, in Ontario's Niagara wine region. This conference will bring together professionals and academics involved in the history and culture of wine, sensory evaluation, wine production and marketing, wine tourism, and wine and health.
The Director of the Research Institute for the Culture and History of Food and Drink is Professor Rod Phillips. He teaches courses in the Social History of Alcohol at Carleton, is a specialist in the history of wine and alcohol, and is an instructor in a sommelier certificate program. The Board of the Institute currently comprises other academics at Carleton University, but it will eventually include representatives from associated organizations and institutions.
The Research Institute will soon have a website, but in the meantime anyone wanting more information can contact Rod Phillips at <roderick_phillips@carleton.ca> or by mail at the Department of History, Carleton University, 1125 Colonel By Drive, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1S 5B6.
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