Graduate Journal of Food StudiesSpecial Issue: Food and Loss

Loss permeates our lives, shaping our relationships with food, culture, and each other. How does the experience of loss transform our food systems, traditions, and identities? From ecological devastation to personal grief, food is inextricably tied to how we process and remember what has been lost.

For this 2025 special issue, the Graduate Journal of Food Studies seeks submissions exploring the intersections of food and loss. We invite graduate students and early career scholars across all disciplines to reflect on how loss—individual, collective, ecological, cultural, or otherwise—reshapes foodways, agricultural practices, and gastronomic imaginaries. 

Complete submissions may consider (but are not limited to):

• Grief and Commemoration: How is food used in ceremonies of loss, mourning, or remembrance?

• Ecological Loss: What does the extinction of species or the transformation of landscapes mean for food systems?

• Cultural Erasure: How does the loss of culinary traditions, food knowledge, or material archives impact identity and belonging?

• Memory and Forgetting: How does food help us hold onto—or let go of—the past?

• Displacement and Migration: How do food practices shift in the face of forced migration, war, or dislocation?

• Violence and Genocide: How has food been a tool of resistance or erasure in the context of societal loss? 

• Economic and Material Loss: How do financial insecurities or income disparities shape access to food?

• Planetary Transformation: How do climate crises and natural disasters alter the way we grow, distribute, or consume food?

• Intergenerational Loss: How do shifts in foodways reflect broader multigenerational changes in traditions, identities, or knowledge systems?

• Creative Interventions: How can art, performance, or speculative futures address the intersection of food and loss?

Submission Guidelines

The Graduate Journal of Food Studies is accepting completed, full-length submissions of diverse formats and styles, including (but not limited to):

• Original research articles (3000–5000 words)

• Short-form pieces (500–1000 words): essays, commentaries, op-eds, field notes, archival reports, or interviews

• Creative works: poems, photo essays, visual art, or multimedia storytelling

Submissions are due on March 1, 2025 and should be sent to gjfseditor@gmail.com with the following information:

• Subject line: “Special issue: Food and Loss”

• Your full-length submission, attached as as PDF or Word document

• Type of submission: research article, short-form piece, or creative work

• A brief bio (100 words or fewer)

Find the Graduate Journal of Food Studies website here: https://gradfoodstudies.org/journal/