Founded in 2009, World Critical Dietetics seeks to create spaces for inter- and transdisciplinary inquiry and exploration regarding food, health, nutrition, knowledge, the body, and expertise, as well as critical, justice-enhancing orientations to education, art, and practice in the context of dietetics. World Critical Dietetics embraces multiple disciplines and perspectives not routinely included in the dietetics cannon including those of sociology, anthropology, women’s studies, food studies, history, english, geography, and environmental studies, among others. In addition to widening the breadth of knowledge and scholarship within dietetics and nutrition, World Critical Dietetics seeks to foster capacity and elevate the voices of dietetic students, practitioners, and educators, as well as critical scholars, community members, and activists to advance food, health, and social justice.

This year, we convene amid a global pandemic that illuminates how deeply entrenched structural inequities perpetuate health disparities, while participating in/bearing witness to a number of social movements to protect marginalized lives, like #SayHerName, Black Lives Matter, #Metoo and Idle no More, among others.  Now, more than ever, dietetics is called to engage in challenging conversations that push our profession to expand our thinking on what is possible.  We must listen and learn from the perspectives of others in disciplines, practice areas, and communities outside of our own.

In the spirit of this reflexivity, transdisciplinarity, and with the aim of blurring/crossing epistemological and ontological disciplinary boundaries, the 2020 conference will focus on exploring the myriad ways critical dietetics knowledge and praxis intersect with other disciplines to empower and disenfranchise communities with whom we interact. This includes exploring inter- and transdisciplinary synergies and tensions between dietetics and other disciplines, professions, and communities; theory, approaches, and experiences of reflexive practice in action; and applying reflexive insight toward anti-racist, anti-oppressive, and socially just dietetic work.  The opening session of the conference – a Tribunal on Racism in Dietetics – will begin the process of “calling in,” exploring how dietetics educators and practitioners actively contribute to the oppression of marginalized communities with whom we work.  A series of invited speakers will reflect upon gatekeeping in the profession and provide an opportunity for dialogue to push us to think differently about dietetic education and practice.  Submissions specifically addressing these topics, and others are encouraged.

• Racism in dietetics education, theory, and practice
• Exploration of critical dietetics in relation to contemporary social movements including BLM, INM, #MeToo, #NeverAgain, #TimesUp, #SayHerName
• Intersections of civil rights and critical dietetics/critical food studies 
• Dietitians’ roles as advocates and activists for food, health, and social justice
• Imagining what socially just dietetic practice looks like, feels like, and sounds like
• Structural and cultural competence in dietetics

Although submissions related to the guiding theme are encouraged, proposals that examine other topics related to critical perspectives in dietetic education and practice are also welcome. These may include, but are not limited to the following:

• Disrupting disciplinary boundaries/incorporating multiple knowledges into dietetic work
• Theorizing the dietetic body of knowledge
• Promoting Indigenous ways of knowing in dietetics and nutrition
• Critical perspectives of food, nutrition, bodies and body weight
• Historical perspectives of dietetic education, research, and practice
• Critical dietetic pedagogy
• Methodological considerations for critical practice-based research and scholarship
• Dietetics through the lens of queer or trans theory, experience, and identity
• The role of art in dietetic education, research, and practice

Submissions from students, dietetic practitioners, and community members on a variety of topics are encouraged! 

• Practitioner experiences, insights, and tensions working with marginalized communities and/or working within/against the profession
• Development of and shifts in in dietetic identity and/or practice philosophy
• Experiences navigating dietetics education and internships

Proposal and Presentation Formats

The 2020 World Critical Dietetics Conference invites a range of presentation formats.  Submissions may be text-based or in video or audio form.  Please clearly indicate in your proposal, which of the following formats you propose to use:

1. Individual papers/presentations (20 minutes): Please submit a 200-word abstract or 3-minute audio or video recording including the corresponding author’s name, title, affiliation, and email address, plus the names of any co-authors.

• Thematic session – Symposium of three to four papers/presentations (60 minutes): Please submit a thematic overview (100-200 words or 3-minute audio or video recording) that describes the symposium, and three to four abstracts (one for each paper of 200 words each or 2-minutes of audio or video recording). Indicate the corresponding author’s name, title, affiliation, and email address, plus the names, titles and affiliations of the co-presenters.

• Workshop or roundtable (90 minutes): Please submit a 250-word abstract or 3-minute audio or video recording, describing the focus of the workshop or roundtable, the format or activities proposed, and the technologies required. Describe goals of the workshop or roundtable and how participants will be included to make this different from a thematic session.

How to Submit your Conference Proposal

• Pecha kucha-like presentations (20 slides of images to be shown for exactly 20 seconds each): Please submit a 200-word abstract or 3-minute audio or video recording including the author’s name, title, affiliation, and email address, plus the names of any co-presenters. Learn more about the pecha kucha presentation format at: http://www.pecha-kucha.org/what and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pecha_Kucha.

Deadline: September 14th, 2020

Presenters will be notified by September 28, 2020

Send submissions to Christin Seher at cseher@uakron.edu