THIS BOOK is a direct outgrowth of the Religion, Food, and Eating in North America seminar, which convened at the Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion (AAR) from 2008 to 2012. In the seminar, contributors shared papers about religion and food-ways, and a wide range of interested parties discussed the projects. Although seminars are formally limited to twenty members, over the years much larger numbers of active participants attended the meetings and provided thoughtful feedback on the papers under discussion. As a result, the genuine contributor list for this book should be much lengthier than the short list of essay authors actually published here. The volume editors profoundly thank the dozens and dozens of people who attended the AAR sessions and offered feedback on these essays (and others) as the project took shape. We also thank the program committee and annual meeting directors at the AAR, who guided us through the process of creating the seminar. This anthology is a demonstration of what works best in the academy: the product of many eyes, ears, and hands that have crafted, reflected on, responded to, and collaborated within an extended conversation on an exciting new topic in the study of religion.
The editors wish to thank our families for their support throughout the process. Benjamin E. Zeller thanks his colleagues at Lake Forest College and Brevard College for their encouragement and conversations, and especially his students at Brevard and Lake Forest in his Religion and Food classes. He greatly thanks Emily R. Mace, without whose support this project would never have gotten off the ground. Marie W. Dallam thanks her colleagues at the Honors College of the University of Oklahoma for their support and encouragement and is especially grateful for input from Julia Ehrhardt. She also thanks Jean Longo for her perennial enthusiasm. Nora L. Rubel thanks her colleagues at the University of Rochester for their encouragement, as well as her students over the years from UNC-Chapel Hill, Connecticut College, and the University of Rochester. It is for them that she wanted to make this book. She also thanks Rob Nipe, who reads everything she writes. Reid L. Neilson wishes to thanks his friends at the Church History Department of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for their support of his scholarship and writing. He is delighted to have participated in a project that married two of his great loves: religion and eating. The editors also thank the copyright owners of the illustrations used in this book for their permission to do so.