Culinary Historians NY: Eating Pork in Paris, 2/21/12

Culinary Historians of New York (CHNY)

‎"Eating Pork in Paris" at La Maison Francaise de Columbia
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 6-7:30 p.m.

Lecture by Pierre Birnbaum
Location: Earl Hall Auditorium (1 floor up from lobby) @ Columbia University

This talk, presented in connection with the new edition of Pierre Birnbaum's work Le peuple et les gros, under the title Genèse du populisme, explores how eating pork in Paris and other cities can be read as a sign of identity crisis in French society--a way of excluding from the public space others who are different, in this case, Jews or Muslims who follow dietary laws forbidding the consumption of pork.

Pierre Birnbaum is an emeritus professor of political sociology at Université Paris I and currently a visiting scholar at NYU's Tikvah Center for Law & Jewish Civilization. He is an eminent authority on the political history of Jews in France, and on relations between Jews and the State in different contemporary societies. His books include The Jews of the Republic: A History of State Jews from Gambetta to Vichy (Stanford, 1996) and Paths for Emancipation: Jews, States, and Citizenship (Princeton, 1995).