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March 11, 2021
Title: How to Eat in Palestine: Women, Nutrition, and the Settler Colonial Economy under the British Mandate (1920s-1940s)
Organizers: Gender Centre, Graduate Institute Geneva
Description: Under the British Mandate for Palestine (1920-1948) European Jews settled in the country in unprecedented numbers. Within this broader history of colonisation, asking what Jewish settlers ate there might not seem like a pressing matter. But for many Jewish experts in Palestine – including nutritionists, agronomists, economists, and others – promoting a proper diet among Jewish newcomers was not strictly a matter of public health, but rather a tool to support and sustain a growing settler-colonial economy in an expanding Jewish settlement.
Notably, women led many of the efforts to educate Jewish settlers on matters of consumption. Through food programmes, newspaper columns, radio shows, and cookbooks, female nutrition experts prescribed a diet that drew on nutritional science but was adapted to national goals. Bringing together food, physiques, and Zionist ideology, this presentation will highlight the political economy of nutrition and its value for the colonisation of Palestine.
Language: ENG
Registration: Free/ Need to previous register
