We are delighted to share with you that our most recent issue, Blacks and Racism in Dietetics, is now available to view. Thank you to our guest editors, Jill White and Alison Brown, who hosted the launch and shepherded this compelling issue from inception to completion. Also, thank you to the authors whose voices are a clarion call to what needs to change in dietetics to have it be more inclusive, equitable, and diverse. We can’t publish peer-reviewed research without peer reviewers. Thank you to everyone who provided helpful feedback to the authors going forward and finally, thank you, Kerry Beake for getting the files ready to share publicly.
Please read and share this issue with everyone. Let these articles be an urgent guide for transformative action. Let these authors “be the throat of these hours” (Dunlop, 2002, p. 33) and let us engage in conversations with colleagues and friends about what we will do. Let these conversations inspire new inquiry for sharing in the Journal of Critical Dietetics. Let this moment matter.
Dunlop, R. (2002). The body of my garden. Toronto, ON: Mansfield Press.
World Critical Dietetics (WCD) stands in solidarity with the Asian-Pacific Islander (API) communities by bringing a call to action to stop API hate violence. Anti-Asian hate violence rates have doubled in 2020 in some cities across the world, with API members being harassed, pushed, robbed, stabbed, raped, and killed. This is due to the racist rhetoric and scapegoating surrounding the API community with the rise of COVID-19 cases, in line with historical API scapegoating worldwide. Anti-API hate stems from racism, White supremacy, and settler colonialism. For example, API indentured servitude on plantations and railroads, the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy, The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, the Japanese American Internment Camps of World War II, and the continued racist attacks after 9/11 on the Muslim, Sikh, Arab and South-Asian communities are only some of the events that continue to haunt our communities.
The recent mass shootings resulting in the murder of six Asian Women at three Atlanta-area spas as well as four members of the Sikh community at a FedEx in Indianapolis, Indiana has sparked national outcry for government and community support in dealing with the rise in violence against the API community. We are losing parents, siblings, relatives, partners, and friends simply because they fit the stereotype of someone “dangerous”, “suspicious”, “exotic”, “weak”, or “less than”. These stereotypes are deeply rooted within our society and culture, where they create purposeful divisions between communities. The division of marginalized groups is a fundamental factor for maintaining institutional oppression and the status quo, solely at the expense of those divided. We live in a society that normalizes living in fear, enduring acts of hate, and managing our trauma, but we can use these experiences to empathize with one another, despite differences in race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or gender identity. So now, as in the past, we need to come together to support one another, and fight against those who attempt to harm our communities
WCD will use our power and voice to amplify marginalized communities so they can speak about their challenges and concerns. WCD condemns all anti-Asian hate speech and actions, and stands in solidarity with the API community.
We stand committed to take the following actions:
1. We will seek, listen, and learn from the stories of the Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) communities to discuss barriers and matters about race.
2.We will continue to educate ourselves and others about the ways racism is perpetrated in BIPOC communities, and how to address the dismantling of negative rhetoric and stereotypes.
3. We will use our space and resources to create an ongoing platform for BIPOC communities.
4. We will work with BIPOC communities to identify the needs and create resources to support dietitians, healthcare providers and researchers in anti-racist work.
5. We will advocate for social justice through research, education and practice that addresses social and health inequities.
WCD is in the process of creating a comprehensive action plan to address racism within WCD, within dietetics which will be shared for feedback shortly.
We stand in solidarity with the most oppressed and will fight for a world free from racial violence, human suffering and exploitation, where equal access to life is valued for all.
This special issue was guest edited by Dr. Ann Fox, Associate Professor and Chair, Department of Human Nutrition at St. Francis Xavier University. It was late last spring when Dr. Fox reached out with the idea of a pandemic special issue and these three papers, plus the editorial are the result. You can find the articles on our Journal site or, in an effort to make the articles even more accessible, we are posting the PDFs below. Please share widely and when the date has been determined, we look forward to you joining our Pandemic Issue Launch Party!
Welcome to the 10th annual World Critical Dietetics virtual conference!
While I wish we could be gathering in person, and I could have shared a piece of my home town, Akron, Ohio with you, I am excited you are here and spending part of your time with us at this year’s conference. We welcome those of you who are new to World Critical Dietetics, as well as our long-time friends and colleagues from around the world.
We have an amazing line up of speakers this year, each of whom will push us to “call in” and “call out” the ways in which we, as food and nutrition professionals and global citizens, contribute to, participate in, and can work to dismantle the systemic structures leading to nutrition and health inequities. Our opening keynote “A Tribunal on Racism in Dietetics” has been viewed by more than 800 people around the world and featured a powerful group of Black women speakers and those who stand in solidarity to engage a poignant dialogue on racial justice in the profession.
In subsequent conference sessions, you will hear from a variety of students, practitioners, educators, and scholars as they bring forth some of the most pressing questions facing dietetic practice, in brave and vulnerable ways. This is not your typical academic conference. I urge you to tune in with an open heart and mind, a compassionate and inquisitive spirit, and a commitment and passion for working towards solidarity and justice.
Sessions will convene via WebEx over the next three Fridays in November, with links sent via email to the sessions each week. Pop in when you can, wear what is comfy, and bring a snack. We know that everyone is video conferenced out! Sessions for this year’s conference will not be recorded but if you are looking to get in touch with a speaker regarding their presentation, you can find their contact information in this year’s conference proceedings. We encourage you to reach out and connect with those whose stories speak to you. World Critical Dietetics is as much about community building and connection as it is about critical inquiry and activism.
If you are not already, I encourage you to become a WCD Member. Memberships support the work of our organization, such as the publishing of the Journal of Critical Dietetics, an important outlet for scholarship and critical voices in the profession.
Current members, we look forward to updating you on the growth of WCD and giving you a sneak peak at our plans for the year (new website and logo, special issues of JCD, and more!) at our AGM on Friday, Nov 27th. Make sure to register in Eventbrite and join us to help us set our priorities for the year.
Finally, as we all will join in this learning opportunity from traditional lands of Indigenous Peoples of around the world, I encourage you to make space during this conference to acknowledge the history of the land which you occupy and the roles and responsibilities you hold as guests on their territories. Further, I would like to express gratitude to those who protect and steward the gifts and teachings offered by Mother Earth; for us and generations to come. You can learn more by visiting: https://www.whose.land/en/.
Given the extraordinary circumstances of this year and in the interest of inclusivity, we would like to make the WCD 2020 virtual conference more accessible to all who are interested. For anyone who does not have institutional support,conference registration will be based on ability to pay.
If you registered only for the Tribunal and would like to attend the entire conference, we encourage you to return to the EVENTBRITE registration page.
If you are a conference presenter and wish to attend presentations or workshops outside of the concurrent session you are scheduled to present, please register for the conference in order to receive access to presentation links.
If you have paid for your registration based on the original fee model and would like resubmit your registration under the ability to pay please contact our treasurer Julie Rochefort at jrochefo@uoguelph.ca.
Our mission is to advocate for and support dietetics education, practice, and research that is transdisciplinary, trauma-informed, compassion-centered, and justice-enhancing.
We seek to engage dietetics practitioners, students, scholars, educators, equity-seeking communities, and decision-makers that create space for critical inquiry to co-learn, challenge oppression, and a dietetics profession that includes, serves, nourishes and is accountable to all.
Looking forward to connecting together at this years conference,
We invite our members to submit a short report that fits into the following categories:
News: make announcements that are short, timely, and topical (50-250 words) examples: book announcements, job/internship postings, calls to action
Recognition: celebrate personal and/or peer accomplishments (500 words max.) examples: awards, reports/white papers, abstracts to published articles
Forthcoming: promote future events or works in progress (250-500 words) examples: calls for papers/participation, details about a public keynote addresses
Multimedia Resources: share files and links to audio/visual work NB: include a brief description to introduce the piece (50-250 words) examples: podcasts, documentaries, creative/artistic pieces
Community Forum: prompt discussions about a topic of interest (750 words max.) NB: pieces will be reviewed by newsletter staff beforehand examples: opinion/commentary, commemorations, retrospectives
Images, figures, and photographs are strongly encouraged to illustrate your message and give it visual appeal. Please provide high-resolution files with appropriate captions. All submission materials should be directed to newsletter.WCD@gmail.com as attachments.
Submissions are due Monday, October 19, 2020.
WCD seeks to engage and support practitioners, students, scholars, educators, equity-seeking communities, and decision-makers across different bodies of knowledge and expertise. This newsletter aims to foster better connections between these different sectors as part of a broader effort towards encouraging more compassionate and respectful relations amongst our members. In our commitment to creating a more collective and inclusive community, WCD particularly welcomes contributions from equity-seeking groups/people or communities under threat. We hope you will consider contributing a piece.
Please note: Content submitted to the WCD Newsletter will be made publicly available on our website. As such, by sending content to the Newsletter, you are agreeing to make your contribution part of public knowledge. So, if contributions are image-based, you are acknowledging that you have the permissions to share the image(s) online, and you authorize WCD to use the image(s) in our publications. Lastly, WCD reserves the right not to publish all submitted content in the Newsletter should the editorial committee find the information in violation of our Vision, Mission, and Values Statement. For questions, please contact newsletter.WCD@gmail.com
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:
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.
World Critical Dietetics 