Migration, Social Media, and Globalization: Matcha Latte and Bubble Tea in Toronto, Canada
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- 2 days ago
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(ICC Sophia Food Studies Unit: Online Lecture Series 2026)
Jeffrey Pilcher
April 20, 2026
20:30-22:00 (JST) / 07:30-09:00 (US EST) / 12:30-14:00 (GMT)
ZOOM Meeting information
Meeting ID: 950 8456 7453
Password: sophiafood
No registration necessary
This talk adopts a mobility studies framework to examine interconnections between the movements of people, goods, and knowledge. By comparing the arrival of bubble tea and matcha latte in Toronto, it seeks to disaggregate the role of outsiders (culinary professionals and grocery chains) and insiders (ethnic restaurateurs and migrant marketplaces, following the
formulations of Krishnendu Ray and Elizabeth Zanoni) in the global transmission and
transformation of food cultures. The comparison between what has been called globalization
from above and from below is complicated, because although transnational chains such as
Starbucks represent corporate power from above, social media is a more ambiguous agent of
cultural transmission.
Jeffrey Pilcher is a professor of Food Studies in the Department of Physical and Environmental
Sciences and director of the Culinaria Research Centre at the University of Toronto Scarborough. His books include ¡Que vivan los tamales! Food and the Making of Mexican Identity (1998), Planet Taco: A Global History of Mexican Food (2012), Food in World History, 3d ed. (2023), and most recently Hopped Up: How Travel, Trade, and Taste Made Beer a Global Commodity (2024).
This talk is organized by Maria Alejandra Dorado Vinay (PhD student at Sophia University GPGS, ICC Research Assistant) and James Farrer (Professor, Sophia University) for the ICC Research Unit "Sophia Food Studies".
