Andrew Donnelly, "Covered in a Stinking Fog"

Prof. Justin Leidwanger, Associate Professor of Classics, and Matthew Previto, PhD Candidate in Classical Archaeology, would like to cordially invite you all to attend Prof. Andrew Donnelly's talk "Covered in a Stinking Fog: Aristocratic Foodways, Monasteries, and Performative Consumption." The talk will be in a hybrid format and will take place on February 24th at 5:00 PM in the Stanford Archaeology Center's Seminar Room at Building 500. This talk is part of the SHC Workshop: The Standardization of Ancient Networks and the SHC has provided generous funding for this talk.

Andrew Donnelly is an Assistant Professor of History at Texas A&M-Commerce. His work focuses on the textual and archaeological evidence for cooking practices in late antiquity. He is involved in fieldwork projects in Ostia Antica and Sicily.

If you would like to attend this talk in person, we will be providing Dinner from Mediterranean Warps. Please indicate your meal order in the following google form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc06Y__UD4WNp5o4Ck-FeYRL3dL3A3KytgFVcDLZOWaE4BN7A/viewform?usp=sf_link. Please Read Prof. Donnelly's Abstract Below: Monastic dining in late antiquity varied across time, geography, and specific monastery. While asceticism was a dominant impulse, monasteries were involved in networks of exchange that provided access to many foodstuffs, spices, and implements for cooking and dining. I focus here on textual (e.g. monastic rules) and archaeological (e.g. cooking pottery) for the development of standards around what I call performative poverty, specifically the act of proudly and deliberately eating humbly, as part of the moral economy that formed in the late antique period. The development of this type of meal—where one ate simple, often foul foods in a highly ritualized manner—was a hallmark of the introduction of aristocratic dining norms, which relied on complex patterns of serving food and a celebration of diverse, exotic ingredients, into monastic settings, where the ascetic impulses of rejecting worldly pleasure dominated. These aristocratic norms had been influenced by recent changes to the availability of goods and cooking materials, as well as a new understanding of the relationship between food, health, and the soul.We look forward to seeing you all on February 24th!