Academic Journal Launch: Visual Hunger / Appétits visuels

Join us for the launch of the very first issue of the academic journal Visual Hunger / Appétits visuels, edited by Dina Salha.

This peer-reviewed, bilingual, open access scholarly journal features the scholarship of talented students. The journal provides students with research and scholarly critical publishing experience, contributes to the quality of the student experience on our campus, and enhances the University of Ottawa’s open access offerings.

Date: December 4, from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Location: University of Ottawa Campus, Simard Hall (SMD), room 125

Address: 60 University Private, Ottawa, ON K1N 8Z4

About this issue

The growing integration of food into media content and digital culture is transforming our perceptions of food, sustainability, and global food systems. Food now serves as a powerful tool for storytelling, fueling the rise of influencers, celebrity chefs, dedicated food channels, and broader cultural industries. This pervasive media presence reflects a pressing need to critically examine the visual and narrative appetite for food—how it is consumed, represented, and commodified across both local and global contexts.

About the authors

Dina Salha is Assistant Professor at the University of Ottawa since 2008. She specializes in critical theory and in different aspects of cultural production and practices. As an academic, intellectual, artist, traveller and foodie, she provides spaces of creativity and mutual learning within her teaching spaces and thrives to analytically document stories that celebrate cosmopolitan and indigenous cultural experiences.

Maya Bugorski received her Master of Communication from the University of Ottawa. She is currently a senior strategic communications advisor for the Government of Canada. She is passionate about representation and develops people-first strategies for public health and risk communication.

Stephanie Platero Martinez is a second-generation Latin Canadian woman who is focused on critical cultural research and constitutive communication. Her research areas include: the power of production and reproduction in the contemporary mediatic landscape, food, identity, and resistive narratives from underrepresented demographics.

Drew Williamson is a Master of Communication candidate at the University of Ottawa. He also holds a Master of Arts in Film Studies from Carleton University. He seeks to synthesize his love of film, pop culture, and new media into a media career.

Bianca Polcari is completing her Master of Communication at the University of Ottawa. She graduated from Concordia University in Communication Studies and hopes to further her education in the field of organizational communication. Her interests include understanding the effects of the power struggle between the new wave of social media influencers and the restaurant industry and how these two groups differ and intersect.

Read more details and download the PDF in Open Access.

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