Accessibility statement

Ben Davenport 

Research

The role of food heritage in the negotiation of identity and belonging among European migrants to the UK

Supervisors: Dr Hayley Saul and Prof Emma Waterton 

Funding: Leverhulme Trust

Research Project

Food has been increasingly recognised as playing an important role in the performance of identities and interest in food heritage has grown greatly as an area of scholarly and public interest over the last two decades. This PhD project will help conceive new frameworks through which to think about the role of food, as a form of cultural heritage, in society, and to think about mobility, the movement of people, foods and knowledge, in ways that acknowledge the diversity of migrant experiences.

The project takes as its focus ‘foodways’ of European migrants in the UK. Selected case studies span a range of temporal and spatial experiences to provide opportunities for comparisons between the role of food heritage in social, cultural and political life under different circumstances. Fieldwork will be carried out in Northwest England working with Ukrainian migrants, in East Anglia working with Polish migrants, and in South Wales working with Italian migrants and migrant descendants. Embracing the creativity inherent in food practices, the project will utilise approaches to data collection that acknowledge the embodied nature of our relationships with food, and seek novel ways of exploring and representing these relationships.

Profile

Ben (he/him) is a Heritage Researcher and Archaeologist based in the Heritage for Global Challenges Research Centre. Before joining the Department of  Archaeology at the University of York, Ben worked as the Centre Coordinator for the Cambridge Heritage Research Centre at the University of Cambridge since its establishment in 2018. Ben held posts at the University of Cambridge in the Department of Archaeology and University Library and previously worked for the Cambridge Archaeological Unit and Oxford Archaeology East. Ben has a BA in Archaeology and an MA in the European Neolithic from Cardiff University.

Publications

Sofaer, J., Davenport, B., Sørensen, M.L.S., Gallou, E. and Uzzell, D., (2021) Heritage sites, value and wellbeing: learning from the COVID-19 pandemic in England. International Journal of Heritage Studies, 27(11), pp.1117-1132.

Davenport, B., (2015) ‘A Heritage of Resistance’ the changing meanings of Belgrade’s Generalštab. In Sørensen, M.L.S. and Viejo-Rose, D. eds., 2015. War and cultural heritage. Cambridge University Press, pp.156-182.

Lloyd-Smith, L., Barker, G., Barton, H., Boutsikas, E., Britton, D., Davenport, B., Farr, L., Ferraby, R., Nyíri, B., Upex, B. and Klokke, M.J., (2013) The Cultured Rainforest Project: Preliminary archaeological results from the first two field seasons in the Kelabit Highlands, Sarawak, Borneo (2007, 2008). In Unearthing Southeast Asia’s Past: Selected papers from the 12th international conference of the European Association of Southeast Asian Archaeologists. Singapore. NUS Press Pte Ltd (Vol. 4, pp. 34-52).

Other Publications

Davenport, B. (2024) “In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs” Heritage for Global Challenges Research Centre Blog (September) [“In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs” – Heritage for Global Challenges Research Centre]

Davenport, B. (2024) The Power of Smell: can food make us remember? Heritage for Global Challenges Research Centre Blog (May) [The Power of Smells: can food make us remember? – Heritage for Global Challenges Research Centre]

Davenport, B. (2024) Culture, Place and Taste: Reflections on the spatial politics of food as Intangible Cultural Heritage. Heritage for Global Challenges Research Centre Blog (February) [Culture, Place and Taste – Heritage for Global Challenges Research Centre (york.ac.uk)]

Davenport, B. and Hoffmann, T. (2023) The life and loss of the Sycamore Gap tree. Heritage for Global Challenges Research Centre Blog (October) [The life and loss of the Sycamore Gap tree – Heritage for Global Challenges Research Centre (york.ac.uk)]

Sørensen, M.L.S., Viejo-Rose, D. and Davenport, B. (2010) CHRC: Cultural Heritage and the Re-construction of Identities after Conflict. The European Archaeologist, 32.

Contact details

Ben Davenport
Department of Archaeology
University of York
Kings Manor
York
YO1 7EP