An Epistemology of Food Waste. Interdisciplinary Perspectives


JUNE, 14-18, 2026


This intensive Summer School investigates the “epistemology of food waste.” It operates on the insight that waste is shaped by diverse knowledge systems—scientific, normative, and experiential. Bridging philosophy, environmental science, and political theory, the program cultivates the critical expertise identified by the FCT research project to redefine how we understand waste.

The Summer School is conceived as an intensive, interdisciplinary training experience designed to invite participants to explore and understand what we call the “epistemology of food waste.” At its core, the program is structured around a simple insight: food waste cannot be understood, measured, or governed without first examining how different kinds of knowledge—scientific, traditional, experiential, embodied, and normative—participate in shaping the concept of waste itself.


The Summer School addresses these issues by placing participants at the intersection of philosophy, food studies, environmental sciences, political theory, and experiential knowledge, cultivating the forms of expertise that the broader FCT research project identifies as essential for developing a coherent epistemology of food waste. 

Across these workshops and daily theoretical sessions, participants engage directly with the fundamental questions of the project:

  • What kinds of expertise are needed to define food waste?
    Through field knowledge, embodied practice, and traditional ecological reasoning, participants experience the plurality of epistemic sources that must be acknowledged.

  • How do norms and values shape what counts as waste?
    Observing how communities attach meaning and value to food practices reveals the moral and cultural dimensions embedded in any definition of waste.

  • How should political authority be distributed in defining food waste?
    The participatory structure of the School—shared meals, collaborative creation, open discussions—models alternative forms of collective decision-making about food-related classifications.

The Summer School thus functions as a pedagogy of epistemic plurality, a laboratory in which participants test and refine the conceptual tools necessary for building a comprehensive and philosophically robust account of food waste. 


Educational Approach

The Summer School functions as a pedagogy of epistemic plurality, combining:

  • Daily lectures 

  • Interdisciplinary seminars 

  • Experiential and field-based workshops

  • Collective meals and collaborative activities

Participants will receive a certificate of attendance.

Instructors

Andrea Borghini – University of Milan, Italy

Sally Geislar – Saint Mary’s College, Indiana, USA

Nicola Piras – University of Minho, Portugal

Matteo Garau – University of Sassari, Italy

Gyorgy Scrinis – University of Melbourne, Australia

Tammara Soma – Simon Fraser University, Canada

Rachel Vaughn – University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), USA

Workshop 1 – Identifying and Harvesting Wild Edible Herbs

This introductory workshop provides a direct experience in exploring and learning about edible wild herbs. Guided by experts, participants learn to recognize the main local species, understand their ecological roles, and use them in the kitchen The harvested herbs will be then used to prepare a meal, allowing participants to appreciate their their transformation from ecological to gastronomic. This workshop introduces participants to traditional ecological knowledge—the expertise embedded in local foraging practices, sensory discernment, and ecological familiarity. Learning to distinguish edible species from inedible ones exemplifies how classificatory boundaries are neither purely scientific nor purely subjective, but instead arise from embodied cognition, cultural understanding, and negotiated social norms. In the context of food waste epistemology, the workshop shows that knowing whether something counts as “food” is already a complex epistemic operation. If identifying edibility requires ecological, cultural, and sensory expertise, then defining food waste cannot rely solely on quantitative or scientific categories.

Workshop 2 – Traditional Bread and Pasta

This workshop takes participants on a journey through traditional Sardinian bread- and pasta-making. Attendees will learn artisan techniques to create traditional forms with local flours, discovering the historical and cultural value of these foods and their relation with the territory.
The workshop includes a sensory experience focused on smell, flavor, and texture, as well as reflections on food culture in local rural communities. This workshop reveals the normative dimensions of food valuation. Traditional methods of transforming flour into bread and pasta illustrate how cultural identity, aesthetics, ritual, and labor contribute to what communities consider “good food,” “proper use,” or “wasteful behavior.” Participants witness how practices of care, time investment, and cultural continuity shape moral expectations around food stewardship. 

Workshop 3 – Natural Dyes from Food Scraps

This workshop allows participants to experiment with natural dyes made from food scraps.
Participants learn how to extract natural colorants from vegetable waste and apply them to textiles through simple dyeing techniques such as immersion, printing, and eco-printing.
The goal is to explore the creative potential of food waste and promote circularity by working with shared materials. Here, food by-products typically treated as “waste” become the starting point for creative transformation. Participants learn how discarded materials can acquire new value depending on context, technique, and intention. This workshop demonstrates that waste is not an intrinsic property of an object but a relational and politically mediated classification. By exposing how revalorization practices challenge dominant categories, the workshop serves as a practical reflection on how definitions of food waste are tied to political processes, institutional choices, and community participation. 


SUMMER SCHOOL LOCATIONS

The two Officine Condivise locations offer complementary spaces for the Summer School.

- Sassari city center Officine Condivise Head Quarter (HQ) (Via Tempio 54) offers an equipped and functional environment for meetings, theoretical sessions, moments of discussion, and more creative activities.

- Sassari countryside (Gabaru) offers a spacious and natural environment where practical activities and workshops take place. It is possible to experiment directly with materials and tools in a collaborative, hands-on environment.



    Application

    The School will host 10 students (graduate students, PhD candidates, and early-career researchers) from any discipline. Applicants should submit a CV and a brief motivation letter to nicola.piras@elach.uminho.pt

     

    The deadline for submission is March 15th, and you will be notified of the decision by March 25th, 2026.

    Costs Covered

    Fees, accommodation (shared rooms), all meals (except one dinner), workshops, and accident insurance will be covered for all selected applicants. 

    Costs Not Covered

    Travel will not be covered. Sassari can easily be reached via bus or taxi  via the international airports of Alghero (the closest to the school venue), Olbia, and Cagliari.

    Local organizers: 

    Nicola Piras, University of Minho, Portugal 

    Matteo Garau, University of Sassari, Italy

    Michelangelo Bestazzi, University of Minho, Portugal 

    For any queries, please contact nicola.piras@elach.uminho.pt

    Funding

    This work is funded by national funds through FCT – the Foundation for Science and Technology, I.P., under the scope of the Exploratory Projects 2023 Grant 2023.12085.PEX, FCT