University of Bayreuth, Kulmbach Campus, Germany, 15-17 September 2027
The theme for the 5th Conference on Food & Communication is: “Communicating Food Realities”. Food is one of the key dimensions through which contemporary societies experience and negotiate transformation, crisis, and knowledge. It is deeply embedded in the major developments of our time and serves as a central site where social, political, scientific, and environmental realities become visible.
Food is increasingly communicated through narratives of crisis, change, and uncertainty. It is represented in relation to climate change, sustainability, health, technological innovation, and geopolitical instability. At the same time, food and foodways, and our knowledge about them, are shaped by different fields and practices: legal studies, microbiological expertise, agricultural and plant sciences, public health, policy, and other knowledge frameworks. Through these diverse perspectives, food realities are produced, interpreted, and contested.
Food is not only materially transformed but also discursively constructed. Through media representations, scientific communication, political debate, professional expertise, and everyday practices, meanings of food are constantly negotiated and redefined. Food speaks to crisis and resilience, to risk and responsibility, to expertise and public understanding. Food can be found at the intersection of science, society, and culture; and it is through communicating food that broader social transformations, conflicts, and inequalities become visible.
Given this central role of food in contemporary society, the theme aims to present and discuss research relating to the multiple realities through which food is communicated and understood. How are food realities represented in times of transformation and crisis? Which forms of knowledge shape these representations? How do different disciplines and communicative contexts construct what counts as food reality?
By studying topics at the intersection of communication and food, the conference welcomes scientific contributions covering all geographic areas, historical periods, and methods, including, but not limited to
- food and politics
- food and governmental discourse
- food and corporate discourse
- food and law / regulation
- food and media
- food and/in social media
- food and crisis communication
- food and professional communication (chefs, restaurants)
- food and language
- food and sciences
- food and sustainability
- food and transformation
- food and health
- food and inequalities
The Kulmbach conference will be the fifth Conference on Food & Communication. Previous conferences have been held in Edinburgh, 2018; Ljubljana, 2021; Örebro, 2023; and Lille, 2025.
We invite submissions from a broad spectrum of disciplines, including but not limited to communication studies, media studies, food studies, sociology, anthropology, political science, linguistics, and public policy. Interdisciplinary approaches are strongly encouraged.
Early bird abstract submissions are due by December 1st, 2026.
Authors will be notified of acceptance by early January 2027.
Standard abstract submissions will be due by February 15th, 2027.
Authors will be notified of acceptance by early April 2027.
All presenters must be registered for the conference by May 15th, 2027, to be included in the program.
Please submit an abstract of no more than 300 words (excluding references) here.
Programme Committee
Dr Ana Tominc, Queen Margaret University Edinburgh, UK (Chair)
Dr Andreja Vezovnik, Ljubljana University, Slovenia
Dr Helen Andersson, Örebro University, Sweden
Dr Radhika Mittal, Amsterdam University, The Netherlands
Professor Jonathan Leer, Örebro University, Sweden
Professor Simona De Iulio, Lille University, France
Professor Tina Bartelmeß, University of Bayreuth, Germany
Local Organizing Committee
Professor Joachim Allgaier, Fulda University of Applied Sciences
Professor Tina Bartelmeß, University of Bayreuth
Constanze Betz, PhD Student, University of Bayreuth
Dr Eva-Maria Endres, Anhalt University
Professor Susanne Mühleisen, University of Bayreuth
Professor Sofia Rüdiger, Freie Universität Berlin