Rory Hill is a researcher in cultural geography with expertise on terroir in food and wine production. Following completion of his DPhil at the University of Oxford in 2016, he joined the Food 2.0 Lab in Paris (ISCC-Sorbonne). Rory’s research explores the concept of terroir as a mediation of environment and culture, and as a meaningful source of value in food and drink. His dissertation examined the development of the concept in France, drawing upon ethnographic and archival research and shedding light on the integration of organic and biodynamic approaches in the cultivation of products with stories to tell. Whilst in Munich, he is working on a book to re-theorize and broaden our understanding of terroir, drawing upon scholarship in geography, history, and the wider humanities. Rory carried out teaching duties at Oxford and developed a number of public outreach events, including the New Food Frontiers conference and Britain’s first ever Café Géographique. He is a recipient of the Dudley Stamp Memorial Award and HGRG National Historical Geography Dissertation Prize of the Royal Geographical Society, and was made a member of the Wine Guild of the United Kingdom in 2016.
RCC Research Project: The Storied Soil: Uncovering the Logic and Rhetoric of Terroir
Lunchtime Colloquium Video - "French terroir: All tip and no iceberg?"
Selected Publications:
- “Exploring Terroir: A Sense of Place in Food And Farming.” Geography: Journal of the Geographical Association 109 (Spring 2019): 42-48.
- “Staging a Nation’s Culinary Geography at the Salon de l’Agriculture.” Cultural Geographies 25 (2018): 643–49.
- “What’s in a Name? Barrels and Double-Barrels of Burgundy.” World of Fine Wine (March 2018): 102–13
- “Pour un terroir ‘d’écologie’: les vins en biodynamie.” In Les Campagnes européennes: espaces d’innovations dans un monde urbain, edited by Christine Margétic, Hélène Roth, and Michaël Pouzenc, 89–101. Toulouse: Presses Universitaires du Midi, 2018.
- “Animating Terroir in the French Alps.” In Reanimating Regions: Culture, Politics, and Performance, edited by James Riding and Martin Jones. London: Routledge, 2017.