About Jane Levi

 

I am a writer, researcher and cultural studies lecturer based in London. I am particularly interested in the role of the senses—especially smell and taste—in the development cultures and ideas across time and space, using food as a lens through which to examine and reveal histories often hidden in plain sight.  Co-author of the book Food, Politics and Society: Social Theory and the Modern Food System (University of California Press, 2018), my writing has been published in books, journals, consumer magazines and on websites—from Gastronomica to GQ—and I give public talks on various aspect of my work as well as teaching in an academic context.

My PhD (in cultural history) evaluated selected utopian movements at various periods in European and American history, using food as the object to reveal and explore the tensions inherent between the mundane business of everyday life and the desire for something better. It discussed the role of food and the senses in achieving self-realisation, contrasting those histories of utopian intellectual thought with the development of contemporary gastronomy. I have published parts of my food and utopia work in essays, articles and conference papers, particularly pieces on Charles Fourier and the Diggers which were core parts of my thesis. I have also published widely on space food, including an article commissioned by Julijonas Urbonas for his “Lithuanian Space Agency” for the 17th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia (2021), and a chapter for Delfina Foundation’s Politics of Food (2019).

A visiting research fellow at King’s College London, I contributed to its Georgian Papers Program and was awarded the GPP/Mount Vernon Fellowship in 2018. My ongoing research at Mount Vernon focuses on the role of food production and consumption in household structures, using food as a means of recovering and examining the life experiences of enslaved people.  I was co-founder of the artist’s co-operative, Edible Utopia, and co-produced its creative urban growing initiative at Somerset House, London (2016-21). I researched and guest curated the Feeding the 400 exhibition (2016-17) for the Foundling Museum, London, developing a reconstruction of the foundling children’s Sunday Dinner for Delfina Foundation, where I was an Associate Artist in their Politics of Food season in 2016. I am a trustee of the Oxford Food Symposium and chair and trustee of the Sophie Coe Prize in food history.

11 thoughts on “About Jane Levi”

  4. Hi Jane, it was wonderful to meet you in Sydney this week and discover your work. I hope you weren’t too travel weary to enjoy the plum pudding workshop. Regards Jacqui

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  5. Hi Jane,
    I was in London at the weekend and managed to catch some of your talk regarding the feeding 400 show at The Foundling Hospital. Unfortunately I had to leave before the end in order to catch my train back up north -I was just wondering if you recorded the interview or if you had a transcript. The bit I heard I found it fascinating thank you

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    1. Hi Rachel, thanks so much! I did try to record it but at some point the recorder decided its memory was full, which I didn’t know until the very end… I will have some time this afternoon to listen back and see how much of it has been preserved and let you know…

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  7. Hi Jane,

    I stumbled across your blog sometime a year or two ago while doing research on Charles Fourier and was totally delighted by it. I’ve long been interested in the theme of utopia, but the idea of utopia + food must have lodged in my brain because I’m now working on my own project focused around that intersection.

    I co-run a micropress called STUDIUM/punctum – mostly we put out short run zines and pamphlets of our own writing. It’s more or less a hobby and labor of love at the moment. Currently I’m putting together a very short (~30 pages) anthology of some utopian food writing. There will be excerpts from Plutarch’s Life of Lycurgus, Campanella’s City of the Sun, More’s Utopia, FT Marinetti’s Manifesto of Futurist Cooking, and some info about Cockaigne, the Ephrata Cloister, Fruitlands, and Biosphere 2. But the centerpiece will be excerpts from Fourier.

    I’m commenting here because I wanted to ask if I could include your Mirliton recipe in the anthology – with credit to you, of course! I would be happy to send you a few copies of the completed pamphlet.

    Please let me know by email if this interests you, and feel free to ask any questions you might have. Thanks!

    Best,
    Tim

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  8. I adore your site! I first read your post on salt-cured egg yolks (before reading your bio here), and what struck me most is the lyrical quality of your writing…and the fact that you speak actual English. Lo and behold- you are not only British, but studied English Lit. Ah, so refreshing to read *real* English…(I say that as an American living in the land of hipster-slang. I really miss the English language. It is generally not spoken here anymore- especially not in *blog land*.) Love your writing- love your food! (see?) I also loved learning about silphium! (I’m sure you’ve read A History of Food in 100 Recipes…)
    Best!

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    1. You are much too kind! Thank you. And yes, I do have William Sitwell’s book, given to me by some very thoughtful colleagues when I finished a consulting job. I like it – but I’m more of an Oxford Companion to Food girl at heart.

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