6:00pm-7:30pm on Monday 23 March
Times shown are in GMT (UTC +0) up to the 26th March. For events on or after 27th March times are in BST (UTC +1).
Corpus Christi College, Meeting Room I-4, New Court, CB2 1RH
What happens when food moves? How do recipes shift as they pass through new kitchens, cities, and hands?
Join anthropologists Dr Stefan Williamson Fa and Dr Joud Alkorani for a conversation on food and migration, with special guest Sameh Asami, Syrian sweetmaker and founder of Levant Book Café in London. Participants will have the chance to taste Sameh’s exceptional sweets and reflect on how culinary traditions sustain community, memory, and belonging across borders.
Dr Stefan Williamson Fa is an anthropologist at the Centre of Islamic Studies, University of Cambridge. His research focuses on the intersections of Islam and the senses across Turkey, the Caucasus, Iran, and Europe.
Dr Joud Alkorani, based at Radboud University in the Netherlands, investigates how food mediates divine–human relations within religiously and ethnically plural communities. Her current work traces diasporic Syrian foodways that have emerged since 2011 through restaurants, food stores, and home-catering businesses in Rotterdam, Dubai, and Mississauga. Together with Stefan, she co-leads the Muslim Foodways Network.
Sameh Asami, founder of Levant Book Café in Park Royal, London, draws inspiration from the cultures of the Levant and from Damascus, where he grew up. His café offers a “home from home” for Londoners from Arabic diasporas, where Damascene flavours, décor, and books come together. Passionate about sharing Syrian culture, Sameh will bring fresh sweets from London for this one-off event in Cambridge.
Presented by the Centre of Islamic Studies, the Muslim Foodways Network, and Studies in Arts, Migration and Aurality . This workshop forms part of Threading Memory: Tatreez Transformations, an exhibition exploring Palestinian embroidery (tatreez), and Tatreez Transformations in Concert.
