LECTURE WITH Q&A + HUMMUS TASTING Hummus Wars: Food, Identity & the Middle East Conflict

Food is for eating.  But it also provides a vehicle for expressing ethnic pride and national identity. Sometimes food articulates conflict.  And other times it serves to foster coexistence. Join Ari Ariel, Professor of the Modern Middle East at the University of Iowa, to learn how these dynamics play out in “Hummus Wars.”  These include the Guinness World Record competition for the largest serving of hummus, calls for boycotting the food product from the shelves of American grocery stores, and debates about who invented hummus anyway. A kosher hummus sampling by Chef Yuval will follow the talk