Pitches wanted (women, war/conflict, food) (worldwide) | $130 per article

COMPANY/PUBLICATION: FEMINIST FOOD JOURNAL 

Deadline: 25 March 2022

War. A state of armed conflict between different countries or different groups within a country. It has reshaped nations, merged and split peoples, changed the course of human history. When we started planning for this issue, we would never have believed that for some of us, right now, war would be nearer than ever. Alongside the horror of the current moment in Ukraine is the grim reality that many people in this world have lived in war’s shadow for most or all of their lives.

Feminist Food Journal’s second issue, WAR, will examine the complex linkages between women, conflict, and food. War forces us to flee and start again in new places or to stay and rebuild in changed ones. It severs us from our land, and therefore our food systems. Food is often the last tether to homes we’ve lost and the first to new ones we’ve gained. In conflict, food is both a weapon and a lifeline. As the old maxim says, “An army marches on its stomach.” The gendered dimensions of food practices mean that war impacts women uniquely. Women fight not only on the front lines but also in farms, kitchens, ration lines, and supermarkets, battling against dwindling resources and the additional conflict that scarcity breeds.

With this issue, we want to honour and elevate the resilience of women and non-binary people in historical or contemporary conflicts across all parts of the world. We’re interested in the stories that don’t make the headlines: stories that shed light on the ways that women/non-binary people and food are overlooked in times of war and reconstruction, or stories that take a fresh feminist perspective on known topics. When discussing if we should go ahead with this issue as planned given Russia’s attack on Ukraine, we decided that with the current influx of information, underreported intersectional feminist perspectives on conflict are more vital than ever.

As with all of our work, we’re committed to publishing writers from racialized or other historically marginalized backgrounds, including LGBTQ2+ writers and writers with disabilities. We’re also committed to presenting global perspectives on each issue, so we’re interested in pitches from parts of the world that are less represented in mainstream food and feminist media. And with the urgency of Russia’s war on Ukraine, we would love to have a story that focuses on the gendered dimensions of this conflict as related to food.

To pitch for this issue, please get in touch at pitch@feministfoodjournal.com by midnight CET on March 25, 2022. (You can find our full pitch guidelines here.) If you want to pitch but current events prevent you from meeting the deadline, please contact us with a rough description of your idea and we’ll figure out an alternative timeline. If you’re interested in writing for us but not sure what topic you’d like to cover, please feel free to adapt or hone in on some of the early ideas that we had for this issue, which included:

• Personal essays or memoirs on war, food, family, movement, and identity
• Gastronationalism: food as a tool for creating and reinforcing divisions
• Gastrodiplomacy: food as a tool for bringing people together (such as through refugee kitchens and start-ups) and the policies behind these efforts
• Historical analysis of the role of women in food politics during periods of conflict (see examples here and here)
• Disruption of Indigenous food systems by settler colonialism
• The gendered dimensions of food imperialism
• How war changes the way women cook or are expected to cook
• The Harvey Girls at the “Harvey House” restaurants, they were the first large group of single women to work outside of the home in the US and pivoted to serving troops trains during WWII (this is a very specific topic, we know!)
• War in a metaphorical sense: war on fat bodies, war on farmers in Punjab

Finally, we recognize that this is a sensitive moment for a war-themed issue and we pledge to put the deepest thought, care, and consideration into all forthcoming pieces. Feminist Food Journal stands with Ukraine and all nations and peoples impacted by imperialism and its atrocities.

CONTACT INFORMATION:

Questions / applications: pitch@feministfoodjournal.com

Website: https://feministfoodjournal.substack.com

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