CALL FOR PAPERS
Annual Two Days of Canada Conference
Brock University / March 11 and 12, 2027
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Two Days of Canada: Food For Thought
DEADLINE to submit – December 11, 2026
https://brocku.ca/humanities/canadian-studies/two-days-of-canada-conference
The Centre for Canadian Studies at Brock University invites submissions for Two Days of Canada: Food for Thought, to be held on Thursday, March 11 and Friday, March 12, 2027.
This transdisciplinary conference, part of the Centre’s annual Two Days of Canada conference series, will bring together students, scholars, and researchers from a wide range of fields to deliver presentations, take part in workshops and roundtables, and attend events in an inclusive and collaborative atmosphere. This year’s conference addresses the issue of Canadian food culture in all its permutations, including wine and drink.
The Niagara region has long and deep associations with food, of course. Its natural attributes are such that it has been the site of semi-permanent settlements and seasonal camps for roughly 1,500-3,000 years. Later, indigenous people practiced both hunting and gathering and farming in Niagara, with the cultivation of maize being a particular focus. By the 17th century Anishinaabe and Haudenosaunee people occupied the territory and European explorers noted their great skill and knowledge when it came to hunting, fishing, and foraging, not to mention agriculture, with beans, corn, and squash being staples of the diet.
As European settlers and settlers of European descent moved into the region in the 18th and 19th centuries, agriculture developed into an industry and a major draw for other settlers. By the late 19th century, Niagara had become famous for its small fruits in particular, and by the late 1920s, the region had become the dominant force in agriculture in Canada. By the 1960s, experiments with growing wine grapes in Niagara had been ongoing for decades, and the success of these experiments led to orchard land being converted into vineyards. Today, while Niagara is still known for its orchards, it is the grape that is king, the driving force behind the region’s wine tourism industry.*
Recently, Niagara’s well-established and vibrant wine industry has helped to bring about a dynamic new food culture. There is perhaps no better example of this development than Restaurant Pearl Morissette in Lincoln, which was established as the fine dining arm of the successful and highly acclaimed Pearl Morissette Winery in 2017, and has since become one of the most venerated restaurants in North America, topping the Canada’s 100 Best Restaurants list in 2025 and 2026, and receiving third place ranking on the North America’s 50 Best Restaurants list in 2026. In addition to its fine dining and its celebrated viniculture program, Restaurant Pearl Morissette is renowned for its sustainable farming, its gardening, its foraging, and its support of local farmers and producers.
All of this makes Brock University, in St. Catharines, ON—right in the heart of the Niagara Region—an ideal setting for a conference on Food in Canada. This is a school that is known for its Applied Grape and Wine Science and its Cool Climate Oenology and Viticulture Institute. This is a school where food-related research is active, and where food-related courses are immensely popular.
The topics we’re suggesting for this conference have been designed to be as broad and inviting as possible, in order to inspire wide-ranging and highly transdisciplinary work. That said, we’re open to other suggested topics, as well. Our only restriction is that proposals should have a Canadian or Indigenous focus to them. Again, the following list of topics is not exhaustive, it is only meant to provide a sense of the kinds of research that might be carried out on the topic of food culture.
- Food and Canadian history
- Contemporary food culture in Canada
- Food sovereignty in Canada
- Food security (and insecurity) in Canada
- Indigenous food culture and foodways in Canada
- Beer, wine, cider, and liquor in Canadian history
- Beer, wine, cider, and liquor in contemporary Canada
- Food and digital culture in Canada
- Regional cuisines of Canada
- Food, race, and ethnicity in Canada
- Food and Canada’s diasporic communities
- Food, drink, and Canadian multiculturalism
- Food and the arts in Canada
- Food media in Canada (print, television, film, etc.)
- Food and Canadian cinema
- Food, agriculture, and the environment in Canada
- Food and medicine / Food as medicine
- Food and spirituality in Canada
- Food and labour in Canada
- Food and distribution in Canada
- Gender and food in Canada
- Food and identity in Canada
- Food, consumption, and consumerism in Canada
- Home cooks and home cooking in Canada
- Restaurant culture in Canada
- Agriculture in Canada
- Agriculture and immigration in Canada
- Hunting and foraging in Canada
- High and low: fine dining vs. casual dining in Canada
- Canadian food in the Trade War era
- Food and Canadian identity
- What is Canadian cuisine?
The program committee invites submissions for both individual presentations and for full panels of 3-4 presentations. We are also open to creative submissions that move beyond these two formats.
Those submitting proposals for individual presentations should send an abstract of no more than 300 words, along with a brief CV or biography. Panel proposals should include a brief outline of the panel topic (maximum 300 words) and of individual presenters’ proposals (maximum 200 words each), along with brief CVs or biographies for the panelists. Panels should also ideally identify a chair or moderator. The committee also welcomes suggestions for round table discussions, given the richness and contentiousness of the topic at hand.
In addition to faculty members and graduate students, we are also interested in proposals from community members and groups outside of the academic sphere.
The deadline for submission is December 11, 2026. Successful applicants will be informed of the program committee’s decision by January 10, 2027.
Please send any inquiries or session proposals to CanadianStudies@Brocku.ca.