What is the Calabria Archive Project?

It’s a digital archive within studiolo.cas cataloguing Calabria’s gastronomy (food and drink culture) and material craft traditions.

Having lived in Calabria, conducting ethnographic fieldwork on the region’s food traditions and gastro-tourism industry for my two anthropology degrees at the University of Oxford, and reconnecting with the ancestral homeland of my parents, I began my journey experiencing first-hand the unique diversity of the region’s landscapes, communities, culinary traditions, and cultural practices.

The aim of the project is to create a rolling digital archive documenting and sharing Calabria’s gastronomic and craft heritage, beyond the territorial and cultural stigma that has historically been created and maintained about the region even up to the present day.

Nothing in life is fixed or static and this archive is not about preserving static knowledge. Rather, gastronomic cultures and traditional craft practices have their origins as an anchor but evolve over time with each new practitioner, environmental and material change, and socio-political and economic shift.

The Calabria Archive Project is about building a continuous dialogue with Calabria’s history and material culture in ways that allow for a better understanding of the region and its communities with nuance, appreciation, and a curiosity to discover more.