The Center for Public Scholarship and the Food Studies Program at The New School are pleased to present the 29th Social Research conference, "Food and Immigrant Life: The Role of Food in Forced Migration, Migrant Labor, and Re-creating Home." The conference will examine the complex relationships between food and migration. Food scarcity is not only at the root of much human displacement and migration—the food industry also offers immigrants an entry point into the U.S. economic system while simultaneously confining migrants to low wages and poor, if not unsafe, work conditions. At the same time, food allows immigrants to maintain their cultural identity. The conference places issues of immigration and food service work in the context of a broader social justice agenda and explores the cultural role food plays in expressing cultural heritage.

Center for Public Scholarship | http://www.newschool.edu/cps

SESSION 2: FOOD BUSINESS AND THE AMERICAN DREAM: GATEWAY OR OBSTACLE?
Migrants engage in small-scale food production and open small restaurants as a way of achieving economic independence and creating economic opportunities for their children.

A. Migrant Workers in the Kitchen
Saru Jayaraman, director, Food Labor Research Center, University of California, Berkeley, Center for Labor Research and Education; co-founder and co-director, Restaurant Opportunities Centers United (ROC-United); author, Behind the Kitchen Door (Cornell University Press)

B. Migrant Women's Labor
Ellen Ernst Kossek, Basil S. Turner Professor of Management, Krannert School of Management, and research director, Susan Bulkeley Butler Center for Leadership Excellence, Purdue University

Moderator: Fabio Parasecoli, associate professor and coordinator of Food Studies, The New School for Public Engagement; author, The History of Food in Italy: Place, Power, Identity (forthcoming)

The Food Studies program at The New School draws on a range of disciplines to explore the connections between food and the environment, politics, history, and culture. Food Studies | http://www.newschool.edu/ce/foodstudies

The conference is made possible through a collaboration between The New School's Center for Public Scholarship and the Food Studies program as well as the Writing Program, India China Institute, Vera List Center for Art and Politics, Center for New York City Affairs, Global Studies program, Gender Studies program, and International Center for Migration, Ethnicity, and Citizenship (ICMEC).

THE NEW SCHOOL | http://www.newschool.edu

Tishman Auditorium, Alvin Johnson/J. M. Kaplan Hall
04/18/2013 6:00-7:00 p.m.