By the “Off the Menu” Research Group
University of Augsburg
1—3 June 2026 
Ammersee, Bavaria, Germany

Call for Applications
Deadline: 3 November 2025

Eating is an ecological act. To nibble and graze is to shape and to sculpt, contouring lands and waters and even worlds. Reflecting on this relationship, the “Off the Menu: Appetites, Culture, and Environment” international research group at the University of Augsburg invites academic researchers and creative practitioners—and especially those whose work straddles both—interested in the many ways that eating and ecology connect, clash, and collide to join us for a culinary environmental humanities forum from 1 to 3 June 2026 at the Villa Habersack of the Bund Naturschutz in Wartaweil am Ammersee, Bavaria, Germany.

Yes, a plate is a flag, as Michael Twitty asserts (2017), and a boundary, as Priya Basil points out (2019), but plates also travel beyond states and nations to connect to the planet as a whole. This is to say that whether porcelain or clay, plastic or bamboo, an heirloom or disposable, plates map inheritances and ruptures, reflect trade and exchange, and archive appetites and their ghosts. 

From conserving fine ceramics and fragile glass to preserving the ingredients such plates present and transform, we wish to reflect on the various meanings of preservation and the myriad ways that plates shift and sometimes even smash. We welcome critical and creative reflections on how eating is an example of what Timothy Morton calls “being ecological” (2018) alongside what we call the planetary turn in food (studies). Transnational and interdisciplinary perspectives are especially welcome. More specifically, we seek contributions that consider questions including but not limited to: 

—   Preservation and Memory

* What makes something worth preserving?
* What happens to a recipe when one of its ingredients goes extinct? 
* How can we conceive of a taste that has been lost?

—   Preservation and Time

* How does preservation interrupt time?
* How has “freshness” as a concept and an aspiration changed over time?
* How does salt materialize the taste of (deep) time and what does time taste like?

—   Preservation and Aliveness

* What makes a fish fresh? 
* How might fermentation make food more alive?
* How does preservation interrupt or support or challenge natural cycles of decay and renewal?

Like a shared feast, our forum seeks to spark diverse forms of collaboration and conversation, from discussions and workshops to creative interventions, and, of course, cooking. Equally we are looking for “original dishes,” meaning novel research and fresh contributions. We welcome and encourage applications from researchers, practitioners, chefs, and artists at all career stages. Contributions are invited from a wide range of fields such as food studies, the environmental humanities, gastronomy, the arts, and beyond. Participants are expected to be present for all three days of the workshop. 

To apply, we ask for a statement of interest describing how the forum’s themes connect to your scholarship or practice and what you would like to contribute or explore within this setting (max. 500 words) together with a short bio (max. 250 words) in a single PDF by 3 November 2025. Funding for travel from within Europe is available, made possible through the generous support of the Elite Network of Bavaria, so please indicate in your application whether you require travel funding. 

The Call for Applications is now closed!