Events
Spring 2026
January
Friday, January 23-Sunday January 25
3rd Annual Writing Retreat
Apply to join us for a weekend writing retreat, with scheduled writing sessions, creative activities, and shared meals. This opportunity is open to VT faculty and graduate students. [Application has passed; stay tuned for our next retreat in January or February 2027].
February
Thursday, February 5, 6-8 PM ET, Litton-Reeves 1870
Panel on Food Policy, Science, & Federal Regulation
The Food Studies Program and the Department of Food Science & Technology will host this panel discussion about what's going on with food policy and government guidance on nutrition. Featuring Dr. Courtney Thomas and Dr. Melissa Wright.
March
Thursday, March 12, 3PM ET
Pi(e) Day celebration -- Bite the Hand (Pie) that Feeds You
Join librarians and archivists to celebrate Pi(e) Day. Pi(e) Day and the Great Library Pie Bake-off events happen on or around 3/14 of each year. The theme for 2026 is going to be "Hand Pies": hand pies, pasties, pocket pies, samosas, empanadas, meat (with meat or not) pies. We'll have some suggested recipes coming soon on our "how do I find a recipe?" tab. There's also a link to some general digital collections there now: https://guides.lib.vt.edu/pieday. There will be a moderated Zoom panel, "Bite the Hand (Pie) that Feeds You" on Thursday, March 12 from 3-4p Eastern (12-1 Pacific)--Register for that here.
Thursday, March 26
Historical Appalachian Dinner
The Maroon Door, 418 N Main St, Blacksburg, VA 24060
Tickets will soon be announced for this excited event! Chefs Justin Bailey and Stephen Doyle from The Maroon Door, along with Chef Travis Milton, Culinary Director at Nicewonder Farm and Vineyard, present a historical Appalachian dinner. Foods will be seasonally appropriate and focus on dishes historically made and eaten in Appalachia, with special reference to their own grandmothers’ cooking and food preservation practices. Our focus is really on mid-century cooking, exploring how old-timey and industrially produced foods came/come together in actual Appalachian kitchens, and what that might look like in a public "fine-dining" context.
April
Thursday, April 2, 5:30-7:30PM EST
Eric Kim, NYT Food Writer, Public Lecture
Newman Library Goodall Room
Join the Food Studies Program, the Department of History, and the APIDA+ Center for an evening with Eric Kim, a food columnist for The New York Times Magazine and a recipe developer and video host for NYT Cooking. A native of Atlanta, he is also the author of the cookbook “Korean American."
Wednesday, April 8, 6-8PM EST
Food Studies Student Trivia Night
Newman Library Goodall Room
Come try your best at a night of food trivia! Students from 7 different Virginia Tech food studies classes will be submitting questions to stump and delight you. Prizes and refreshments available. Open to any Virginia Tech students. The courses/topics that the questions wil be drawn from are:
- HIST/PSCI/RLCL/SOC 1084 Intro to Food Studies
- SPES 2244 World Crops: Food and Culture
- HIST/RLCL 2394 Tofu to Tikka: Asian Food History
- HIST 2514 U.S. Food History
- SPAN 3224 Latinx Food Cultures and Traditions
- ARBC 3414 Hummus, Hospitality, and Identity: Exploring Arab Cultures Through Food
- APS 4414 Issues in Appalachian Studies: Community Canneries
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Stay tuned for more events!
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In addition to these one-off events, we are also working to build a durable community within the Food Studies program. The anchor of this is a biweekly Food Studies Breakfast Discussion Series. Please contact Anna Zeide, zeide@vt.edu, for more details or if you would like to join. We'd love to have you there, and at all our events.
Contact Anna Zeide with input or proposals for future events.