Eating the Discipline

Abstract: To be nourished, fed, cared for; to provide sustenance; to have a place at the table; to be satisfied. But also: to hunger; to hoard; to scrap; to envy; to ration. These expressions can serve as metaphors for issues of nourishment and scarcity in academia, but they also become materially manifest in scenes of eating—from pizza shared in a seminar room to leftovers scraped together in take-out containers after a reception. Drawing together personal anecdotes and critical reflection, dreams and creative imaginings, this autotheoretical piece approaches the question of nourishment and scarcity in academia by looking to moments when we get together to eat or are left alone to feed ourselves. Scenes of eating, it suggests, can highlight stratifications along lines of class, race, gender, and body type, index the failures and fantasies of the neoliberal university, and create openings to imagine environments that nourish, not starve.