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Dr Julie Botticello

Ph.D. (UCL), MA (UCL), B.A. (Hons) Conservation Camberwell College of Arts, The London Institute

Overview

Julie Botticello
Centre for Migration and Diaspora Studies

Member

SOAS Food Studies Centre

Post Doctoral Research Associate

Name:
Dr Julie Botticello
Email address:

Biography

In addition to offering a new view from which to consider identity practices in migration, my academic contribution also lies in the research subject, for although the Yoruba in London are a large and long-standing community, they are an under-researched group; a significant exception is Harris’ (2006) long-term engagement with an Aladura church congregation in London. My doctoral study thus contributes to the ethnographic record of this community and at the same time, widens the research frame.

PhD Research

Current research interests include: an anthropology of food, food as medicine, food waste, industrialization and globalization of food production and its impact on health and well-being; migration and identity maintenance and expansion through foods; growing own food in urban spaces; post-colonial migration, particularly from West Africa and Nigeria; secondhand clothing and other “waste” goods in domestic and global markets; global religions; ethnographic collections in museums; and the material culture of daily life in general.

PhD Publications

  • 2012 Between Classification, Objectification and Perception: Processing Second-hand Clothing for Recycling and Reuse, “Textile: The Journal of Cloth and Culture”, vol. 10 (2), pp.164-183
  • 2012 Review of Bali: Dancing for the Gods, Horniman Museum exhibition, “Journal of Museum Ethnography”, vol. 25, pp. 178-183
  • 2011 Review of Traveling Spirits: Migrants, Markets and Mobilities, by G. Hüwelmeier and K. Krause (eds.), “Religion and Society: Advances in Research”, vol. 2, pp. 179-180
  • 2011 Yoruba-Nigerians, Cosmopolitan Food Cultures and Identity Practices on a London Market, in P. Williams-Forson  and C. Counihan (eds.) “Taking Food Public: Redefining Foodways in a Changing World”, New York and London: Routledge, pp. 425-437
  • 2009 Fashioning Individuality and Social Connectivity among Yoruba Women in London, in D. Miller (ed.) “Anthropology and the Individual”, Oxford: Berg, pp. 131-144
  • 2008 The Yoruba Body, available at: http://blogs.nyu.edu/projects/materialworld/2008/05 the_yoruba_body_1.html
  • 2007 Lagos in London: Finding the Space of Home, “Home Cultures”, March, vol. 4 (1), pp. 7-23

PhD Conferences

  • 2010 Migration, Material Culture and the Transnational Imaginary, Panel to be convened with Dr Ivana Bajić-Hajduković at EASA 2010 Biennial Conference, Maynooth, Ireland
  • 2010 Recycling Textile Technologies, Forthcoming workshop co-organized with Dr Lucy Norris, Department of Anthropology, UCL
  • 2010 Transnational Materials, Practices and Social Lives: Yoruba Nigerians in London and the Quest for the “Good Life”, Paper presented at Material Culture Seminar, Department of Anthropology, UCL
  • 2009 Well-being as Circulation: Yoruba Diaspora in London, Paper presented at the Africa Seminar, London School of Economics
  • 2009 Transnational Objects, Transformative Agency and the Pursuit of Well-being among Yoruba-Nigerians in London, Poster presented at Medical Anthropology at the Intersections: Celebrating 50 Years of Interdisciplinarity, Yale University, New Haven, USA
  • 2008 Yoruba in Diaspora and Supra-national Belonging, Paper presented at Beyond Plurality in the African Diaspora: Ethnicity, Congregation, Networking and Citizenship, ESRC End-of-Award Conference, Keele University
  • 2007 Life in Diaspora: Home Places and Practices of Nigerians in London, Paper presented at European Students' Africa Conference '07, Centre for African Studies, Basel, Switzerland
  • 2006 Locating Home: Diasporic Home Spaces among Nigerians in London, Paper presented at Home Spaces Workshop, Queen Mary, University of London
  • 2006 Locating Home: The Public Spaces of Social and Cultural Identification, Paper presented at Researching Cultural Spaces, An Interdisciplinary Postgraduate Conference, University of London
  • 2006 Lagos in London, Making a Home in the Diaspora: A Comparative Analysis of the Domestic Interior of Two Generations, Paper presented at European Social Science History Conference (ESSHC), RAI, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
  • 2005 Lagos in London, Making a Home in the Diaspora, Paper presented at Interior Insights Symposium, Centre for the Study of the Domestic Interior, Royal College of Art

PhD Affiliations

  • The European Association of Social Anthropology, by academic referee
  • Royal African Society, by subscription
  • Fellow, The Royal Anthropological Institute, by academic referee and election

Research

My plan is to develop this research into an anthropological study of food based healing practices amongst the Nigerian migrant and Diaspora ‘community’ in Britain. The focus will be on health granting food substances, and how these are understood to act, through their material qualities, to maintain or restore good health. In this, I start with an understanding of food and food practices as transformative to those undertaking them. Pieroni and Price (2006) argue for a deeper engagement between food : medicine : : anthropology : pharmacology linkages. Etkin and Ross (1982) focus on this border between food and medicine/food as medicine among Hausa Nigerians in which 25% of non-cultivated medicinal plants are also used as food; Farquhar’s (2002) work in China on medicinal meals reveals that particular foods have transformative potencies dependent upon their physical characteristics, which confer physical as well as emotional effects; Helman’s (2000) research into diabetes and dietary practices amongst British Bangladeshi reveals strong beliefs in the ability of particular foods to sustain or restore health. Aspects of my own research also reveal understandings about the capacities of certain foods to act on and transform body – such as cleanse blood, mop up fat, or increase sperm count.

The proposed research would investigate into what foods are used, how much, how often, in what combinations, how these come to be known as beneficial for purpose, where these are acquired from, how these are prepared, if substitutes become necessary in the migration context, and how the inability to acquire the right ingredients or to be prepared in a particular way affects ability to be well. Other points of interest will be on the more general landscapes, times and locations where food practices, from procurement, to preparation, to consumption, occur, and the social exchanges which attend promoting, acquiring and using the health granting foods. Carballo and Mboup note that the health dimensions of migration have received little scholarly attention from sending or receiving countries (2005). An exception to this is Krause’s (2008) work with Ghanaians in London, which reveals the existence of transnational therapy networks, which incorporate herbal, biomedical and spiritual systems, and are sourced through a variety of social networks locally and at a distance. Further investigation is necessary into existing research on this topic; my proposed research would contribute to new interests in the intersection between migrant, food practices, healing and health attainment.