The Sensorial City: Food Studies and Urban Ethnography

Catalog description

How does food reflect and influence broader patterns of cultural identity, historical memory, and social transformation in cities? Cities are both repositories of memory and material networks that feed cycles of production, consumption and waste. Cities invite us to explore foodways as an outlook into the plurality of human experience. At the crossroads of global connections, labor migration and cultural exchange, Abu Dhabi is a uniquely diverse city consisting of more than 20 ethnicities. If the city assembles the tangible and intangible heritage of its residents, food embodies a profound sensory dimension. Against this dynamic context how are urban communities defining their culinary identities? How do foodscapes in Abu Dhabi reflect local histories and current transformations? This course approaches Abu Dhabi as an ethnographic fieldsite for the students to develop their skills in the field of urban food studies. Exploring the smellscapes of the city, drawing food maps, following commodities in markets, documenting urban rhythms and filming seasonal festivals, the course highlights the ways in which the senses can generate new understandings of how people live together in cities.