- Oxford Science History Museum to investigate ‘political nature’ of milk
Yesterday it was revealed that a taxpayer-funded project is set to investigate connections between milk and colonialism.
Academics at an Oxford museum will investigate the “political nature” of milk and its “colonial legacies”.
One of the experts involved has previously stated that milk is a “northern European obsession” that has taken hold in other parts of the world.
Dr. Johanna Zetterstrom-Sharp said the assumption that milk was a key part of the human diet “can be understood as a white supremacist assumption,” as many populations outside of Europe and North America have high levels of intolerance to it. lactose in adulthood.
The new project, ‘Milk It: Colonialism, Heritage and Everyday Engagement with Dairy’, has won funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council.
Oxford museum academics to carry out taxpayer-funded research project into the ‘political nature’ of milk and its ‘colonial legacies’
The council itself is funded by the Government through the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, and awards around £110 million to researchers from universities and independent organisations.
The milk project will be based at Oxford’s Museum of the History of Science, which announced it had received funding. The amount of the grant has not yet been revealed.
The museum said: ‘By focusing on communities that intersect industry, aid and government regulation, the project aims to focus on heritage as a vital framework for understanding how colonial legacies influence contemporary issues and affect the lives of people. people.
‘Through milk diaries, archival research and participatory podcasts, you will investigate historical engagement with milk, building networks with consumers and producers in Britain and Kenya.
“The project will question the real and imagined aspects of milk, revealing the intimate and political nature of this everyday substance.”
Dr Zetterstrom-Sharp, Associate Professor at the Institute of Archeology, University College London, and Dr JC Niala, Head of Research at the History of Science Museum.
Oxford’s Museum of the History of Science has received funding from the Arts and Humanities Council to “question both the imaginary and real aspects of milk”
Dr Zetterstrom-Sharp took part in a talk entitled Milk and Whiteness during a Wellcome Trust exhibition on milk in 2022.
In the panel discussion, he said that a “northern European obsession with milk” had led to assumptions that it was a vital part of any human diet and that it needed to be produced and supplied on a large scale.
The Wellcome Trust exhibition highlighted the imposition of dairy economies by colonial powers, even in regions where populations had high levels of lactose intolerance.
Dr Zetterstrom-Sharp also highlighted issues related to how local milk production in Africa may have been overturned in favor of industrial methods aimed at producing greater volume, and how milk has been distributed by aid organizations.