Aldea Mulhern | Brandon University (original) (raw)

Aldea Mulhern

I research and write ethnographically about the intersection of religion and food in North America.
Phone: 204-727-9690
Address: Department of Religion
Brandon University
303 Clark Hall
270-18th Street
Brandon, Manitoba
R7A 6A9

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Papers by Aldea Mulhern

Research paper thumbnail of A Recipe for Success, or for Assignment Starvation? When Students Wanted an Assignment Outline, What I Gave Instead, and What Happened Next

This article is about teaching fieldwork-based analytical writing, using a recipe. It comes out o... more This article is about teaching fieldwork-based analytical writing, using a recipe. It comes out of my unease with some traditional forms of university pedagogy, and is part of a larger story of how I used food and foodways materially and epistemically in a second-year course. Here, I focus on how and why I adapted a part of my course mid-stream in response to student needs, by responding to student requests for an assignment handout with a recipe for writing.

Research paper thumbnail of Living Sacrifice: Rethinking Abrahamic Religious Sacrifice using Field Narratives of Eid ul-­‐Adha

Sacrifice in common parlance means one of two things: subsuming a need, desire, or preference for... more Sacrifice in common parlance means one of two things: subsuming a need, desire, or preference for the sake of something else; or ritualistic slaughter. The first meaning, which is far more discursively prevalent than the second, entails giving up something of value, either for what one imagines is a greater good, or with the hope of receiving something better in return.

Research paper thumbnail of Food

Oxford Bibliographies Online Datasets, 2000

Research paper thumbnail of Oxford Bibliographies Online: Jewish Studies: Food

Oxford Bibliographies Online, 2014

Research paper thumbnail of What does it mean to 'eat Jewishly'? Authorizing discourse in the Jewish food movement in Toronto, Canada

This article examines the development of ‘eating Jewishly’ among participants at Shoresh Jewish E... more This article examines the development of ‘eating Jewishly’ among participants at Shoresh Jewish Environmental Programs in Toronto, Canada. Participants at Shoresh construct and draw upon Jewish tradition in order to resolve gaps between the is and the ought of the conventional food system, and to a lesser extent, the narrower food system of kashrut. ‘Eating Jewishly’ re-positions religious orthodoxy as one in a set of authorizing discourses, subsuming all Jewish eating acts under one rubric. ‘Eating Jewishly’ thus departs from standard narratives of Jewish eating as either eating kosher, or eating traditional Jewish foods. I use a theory of authorizing discourse to show
the conditions of possibility through which Shoresh develops their intervention as Jewish. I conclude that such authorization practices are a key form of productive constraint in the formation of Shoresh’s lived religion, and in the formation of religion as a framework for social good.

Research paper thumbnail of A Recipe for Success, or for Assignment Starvation? When Students Wanted an Assignment Outline, What I Gave Instead, and What Happened Next

This article is about teaching fieldwork-based analytical writing, using a recipe. It comes out o... more This article is about teaching fieldwork-based analytical writing, using a recipe. It comes out of my unease with some traditional forms of university pedagogy, and is part of a larger story of how I used food and foodways materially and epistemically in a second-year course. Here, I focus on how and why I adapted a part of my course mid-stream in response to student needs, by responding to student requests for an assignment handout with a recipe for writing.

Research paper thumbnail of Living Sacrifice: Rethinking Abrahamic Religious Sacrifice using Field Narratives of Eid ul-­‐Adha

Sacrifice in common parlance means one of two things: subsuming a need, desire, or preference for... more Sacrifice in common parlance means one of two things: subsuming a need, desire, or preference for the sake of something else; or ritualistic slaughter. The first meaning, which is far more discursively prevalent than the second, entails giving up something of value, either for what one imagines is a greater good, or with the hope of receiving something better in return.

Research paper thumbnail of Food

Oxford Bibliographies Online Datasets, 2000

Research paper thumbnail of Oxford Bibliographies Online: Jewish Studies: Food

Oxford Bibliographies Online, 2014

Research paper thumbnail of What does it mean to 'eat Jewishly'? Authorizing discourse in the Jewish food movement in Toronto, Canada

This article examines the development of ‘eating Jewishly’ among participants at Shoresh Jewish E... more This article examines the development of ‘eating Jewishly’ among participants at Shoresh Jewish Environmental Programs in Toronto, Canada. Participants at Shoresh construct and draw upon Jewish tradition in order to resolve gaps between the is and the ought of the conventional food system, and to a lesser extent, the narrower food system of kashrut. ‘Eating Jewishly’ re-positions religious orthodoxy as one in a set of authorizing discourses, subsuming all Jewish eating acts under one rubric. ‘Eating Jewishly’ thus departs from standard narratives of Jewish eating as either eating kosher, or eating traditional Jewish foods. I use a theory of authorizing discourse to show
the conditions of possibility through which Shoresh develops their intervention as Jewish. I conclude that such authorization practices are a key form of productive constraint in the formation of Shoresh’s lived religion, and in the formation of religion as a framework for social good.

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