Prof. Bob Davidson, PhD

Degrees
PhD (Cornell, 2002)

Bob Davidson, Mary Rowell Jackman Professor of Humanities at the University of Toronto’s Victoria College and faculty at the Culinaria Research Centre, specializes in the study of food, drink, and hospitality. He is the author of Jazz Age Barcelona (U of Toronto Press; shortlisted for the Canada Prize in the Humanities) and The Hotel: Occupied Space (U of Toronto Press). His latest project, The Scent of Spain: Fragrance, Odour and Culture, looks at key fragrances and smells that were part of Spain’s modern experience

He is the founder and co-editor of UTP’s Toronto Iberic book series and has published work on different aspects of the Castilian and Catalan avant-gardes, cultural theory and film. In addition to directing the Northrop Frye Centre, Prof. Davidson currently serves as Chair of the Manuscript Review Committee of University of Toronto Press. He takes his martini with a little extra vermouth and both an olive and a twist.

Selected Publications

• The Hotel: Occupied Space (U of Toronto Press, 2018)
• Jazz Age Barcelona (U of Toronto Press, 2009)
• “Bravanariz’s Fluid Landscape.” MLN. 140.2 (2025): 277-88.
• “Cava’s Place.” Digestible Governance: Gastrocracy and Spanish Foodways. Eds. Eugenia Afinoguenova, Lara Bernadette Anderson and Rebecca Ingram. Nashville: Vanderbilt UP. 2024. 198-219.
• "New Coordinates: Spatial Mappings, National Trajectories." Guest Editor (with Joan Ramon Resina) Special Double Issue of Diacritics. 33.3-4 (2003) [2006]. 203 pp.
• "Barcelona: The Siege City" in The Catalan Cultural Studies Reader. Ed. Dominic Keown. Woodbridge: Tamesis, 2011. 97-116.
• "Terroir and Catalonia." Journal of Catalan Studies. 10 (2007): 58-72.