Graduate Seminar in Critical Food Studies: Interdisciplinary Research.

Catalog description

This seminar introduces graduate students to critical food studies--a dynamic, interdisciplinary subfield that uses food as a lens to examine systems of power, measures of social belonging, and concerns about environmental sustainability. Drawing on methods from anthropology, literature, history, public health, and beyond, we engage with diverse readings--including ethnographies, biographies, farm records, community and chef cookbooks, novels, oral histories, and documentaries--to investigate American food communities as well as the uses and meanings of food within them. Rather than defining food studies, we explore its interdisciplinary questions and methods while reflecting on the ethical responsibilities of researchers in this evolving field.