Naming cheese

Abstract

The following essays were written by members of the Cheese Scholars Collective. Formed during a workshop held 24–26 June 2009 in Totnes, Devon, England, the Collective is dedicated to faci1itating the constructive exchange of scholarly perspectives on cheese and its makers. The short essay form of these papers is intended to allow for a more productive juxtaposition of the authors' ideas, and to better convey the array of forms their shared object of study has taken in the cheese world. The essays focus on the naming of cheeses, what these names reveal about cheeses and those who name them, and what the naming of cheese tells us about the social dynamics of food more broadly.