A taxpayer-funded project in the UK is set to research connections between milk and colonialism.
Academics at an Oxford museum will research the ‘political nature’ of milk and its ‘colonial legacies’.
One of the experts involved has previously argued that milk is a ‘Northern European obsession’ that has been imposed on other parts of the world.
Dr Johanna Zetterstrom-Sharp said the assumption that milk was a key part of the human diet ‘may be understood as a white supremacist one’, as many populations outside Europe and North America have high levels of lactose intolerance in adulthood.
The new project, ‘Milking it: colonialism, heritage & everyday engagement with dairy’, has won funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council.
The milk project will be based at the History of Science Museum in Oxford. The size of the grant has not yet been revealed.
The museum said: “By focusing on communities intersecting industry, aid and government regulation, the project aims to centre on heritage as a vital framework for understanding how colonial legacies influence contemporary issues and affect people’s lives.
‘Through milk diaries, archival research and participatory podcasting, it will investigate historical engagement with milk, building networks with consumers and producers in Britain and Kenya.
‘The project will question both the imagined and real aspects of milk, revealing the intimate and political nature of this everyday substance.’
Dr Zetterstrom-Sharp took part in a talk titled ‘Milk and Whiteness’ during a Wellcome Trust exhibition on milk in 2022.
[Photo: by Eiliv Aceron on Unsplash]