Prof. Dr. Theodore C. Bestor
(Harvard University, USA)
"Washoku on the World Stage: UNESCO and 'Traditional Japanese Cuisine'"
January 8, 2015
Theodore Bestor's research focuses on Japanese food culture and, in particular, on the globalization of Japanese cuisine and its intense popularity throughout the world. This lecture will focus on his current research on UNESCO, the concept of Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH), and the impact (if any) that the UNESCO designation of washoku may have. The lecture seeks to enter into a dialogue with German scholars on this topic and how the designation of ICH may have registered in Germany or elsewhere in central Europe.
Theodore C. Bestor is the Director of the Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies and Reischauer Professor of Social Anthropology at Harvard University. He is a specialist on contemporary Japanese society and culture; much of his research focuses on Tokyo, and he has written widely on urban culture and history, local neighborhood society and identity, markets and economic organization, food culture, and popular culture as a defining aspect of urban Japanese life.
Currently his research focuses on Japanese food culture and, in particular, on the globalization of Japanese cuisine and its intense popularity throughout the world. (Source: http://scholar.harvard.edu/bestor/biocv)