The Laboratory for the Study of the Greek Language and the OSU Modern Greek Program present a lecture by Dr. Petros Karatsareas, University of Westminster
Beyond the plate: ethnographic encounters in London’s Greek and Italian foodscapes
Monday, April 14 at 2:15pm in University Hall 074 (basement of University Hall)
Abstract: In this talk, I explore the intersections of food, language, and migration by examining how Greek and Italian hospitality professionals in London use food talk to position themselves within the city’s evolving food scene. Drawing on multi-sited, participatory ethnographic research, I analyze conversations over dinner where food professionals articulate competing and intersecting notions of authenticity, tradition, and expertise.
The analysis highlights how food professionals navigated the precarious landscape of the post-Brexit and post-COVID-19 economy, shifting between competitive and solidarity-driven discourses in response to economic pressures, staffing challenges, and cultural representation. At the same time, I problematize traditional research roles by examining how research participants and “research outsiders” such as chefs, waiters, and other hospitality workers actively shaped the knowledge co-construction process during data collection. I show how their contributions disrupted conventional researcher-participant dynamics, highlighting how language, space, and sensory experiences contributed to meaning-making in the ethnographic work.
Petros Karatsareas is Reader in Multilingualism and Language Contact at the University of Westminster in London, where he leads the MA programmes in English Language and Linguistics, and English Language and Literature. He holds a Ph.D. and M.Phil. in Linguistics from the University of Cambridge, and a Ptychion in Greek Philology from the University of Athens.
