Thoughtlines: academic thinking outside the box
Series 1 | Episode 1: Melissa Calaresu – We are what we eat
In this episode, presenter and broadcast journalist Catherine Galloway talks food with cultural historian Dr Melissa Calaresu. The need to nourish ourselves is an eternal, daily preoccupation for all of us, but what we eat, and why, is an altogether meatier subject. Food is pleasure, performance, politics and even panic. Which fruit was a full-blown fashion craze in the 1600s? What did an undergraduate Isaac Newton feel guilty about buying? And why are our own early food memories so powerful?
(This episode was recorded before Covid-19 lockdown restrictions).
- Presented by broadcast journalist Catherine Galloway and produced by Carl Homer of Cambridge TV.
- Thoughtlines is available via most podcast platforms.
Learn more:
- Watch a short film on Melissa Calaresu’s ‘Feast and Fast‘ exhibition featured in this episode.
- Read an academic introduction to food culture in Europe from 1500-1800 by Melissa Calaresu.
- Read more of Melissa Calaresu’s research on the Neopolitan food experiences of Welsh painter Thomas Jones.
- Melissa Calaresy is Neil McKendrick Lecturer in History at Gonville and Caius College and Affiliated Lecturer at the Faculty of History, University of Cambridge.
