Developing a Humanities-Focused Food Studies Minor
FAIN: AKA-279429-21
Virginia Tech (Blacksburg, VA 24061-2000)
Anna Zeide (Project Director: September 2020 to October 2022)
Letisha Brown (Co Project Director: May 2021 to October 2022)
Saul Halfon (Co Project Director: May 2021 to October 2022)
Mark V. Barrow (Co Project Director: May 2021 to October 2022)
Danille Christensen (Co Project Director: May 2021 to October 2022)
A one-year planning grant to develop new courses in food studies and create a food studies minor.
Virginia Tech proposes a new humanities-focused food studies minor that brings the insights and methods of the liberal arts to the critical study of foodways and food systems. The minor requirements will include a new Introduction to Food Studies course; electives from the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences; one-credit hands-on courses, and a capstone course with an experiential learning component. We will begin the planning grant period by holding a workshop guided by directors of other food studies programs. Over the course of the year, the planning committee will continue monthly virtual discussions with these consultants and others as we craft collaborative course proposals and the minor proposal. By the end of the year we will have submitted paperwork for the new courses and minor, created a plan for recruiting students, and developed a shared community around these aims.
Associated Products
Food Politics (Course or Curricular Material)Title: Food Politics
Author: Bikrum Gill
Author: Courtney Thomas
Abstract: Course description: Focuses on how scholars, pundits, citizens, and policymakers think about food on local, national, and global scales. Explores various ways of producing, distributing, and consuming food and how they are implicated in specific organizations of power and possibility. Examines how food, and the discourses surrounding food, help structure understandings of a variety of issues, such as identity, property, labor, gender, race, responsibility, and death.
Year: 2022
Audience: Undergraduate
Food Writing (Course or Curricular Material)Title: Food Writing
Author: Derek Mueller
Author: Matthew Vollmer
Abstract: Course Description: A course in food writing and food media.
Year: 2022
Audience: Undergraduate
From Raw to Burnt: Exploring Science & Society Through Food (Course or Curricular Material)Title: From Raw to Burnt: Exploring Science & Society Through Food
Author: Herbert Bruce
Abstract: Course Description: Introduces students to food as a method of studying scientific principles and development of society. Integrates the understanding of the chemistry, biology and physics of food with the advancements in and the cost to human civilization due to food production. Demonstrates the scientific principles using food preparation experiences.
Year: 2022
Audience: Undergraduate
Indigenous Foodways (Course or Curricular Material)Title: Indigenous Foodways
Author: Mae Hey
Abstract: Course Description
Examines American Indian worldviews and human-Nature relationships within the context of a dominant non-Indigenous society, through land-based learning. Introduces and contrasts Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) and Scientific Ecological Knowledge (SEK). Encourages the equitable inclusion of Indigenous peoples’ practices in the human and environmental sustainability of our collective future, with attention to global Indigenous struggles for justice. Offers opportunity for student engagement in hands-on foraging, seed saving, cultivation, and projects around food sovereignty, food security, and revitalization of traditional foodways, in collaboration with local Native communities.
Year: 2022
Audience: Undergraduate
Introduction to Food Studies (Course or Curricular Material)Title: Introduction to Food Studies
Author: Anna Zeide
Abstract: Course Description
Introduction to the field of food studies, which examines the way food functions in culture and society. Examines how people use food to make meanings (through art, architecture, history, and ethics), what systems and structures (law, policies, social norms) shape our food access and preferences, and how the physical properties of food (chemical, geographic, nutritional, ecological) matter. Students will learn from a wide range of individuals who engage with food across different areas
Year: 2022
Audience: Undergraduate
Tofu to Tikka: Food in Asian History (Course or Curricular Material)Title: Tofu to Tikka: Food in Asian History
Author: Peter Schmitthenner
Author: Helen Schneider
Abstract: Course Description
Exploration of the evolution and alterations of food and cuisines throughout Asian history. Examination of the economic, geographical, political, philosophical/religious, and social underpinnings of food in premodern Asian societies; influence of the Columbian Exchange of Asian and global cuisines; Euro-American imperialism’s impact on food and society in Asia and in the European and American metropoles; emergence of national cuisines in Asia; and Asian food in the post-colonial diaspora.
Year: 2022
Audience: Undergraduate
Black Food in the US: Race, Racism, and Food Studies (Course or Curricular Material)Title: Black Food in the US: Race, Racism, and Food Studies
Author: Letisha Brown
Abstract: Course Description: This course explores the relationship between race, racism, and food in the US. Specifically, this course tackles how Blackness shapes experiences of food and eating, health, farming, gentrification, and more in the US
Year: 2022
Audience: Undergraduate
How Do Other Food Studies Programs Work? Webinar Series (Web Resource)Title: How Do Other Food Studies Programs Work? Webinar Series
Author: Anna Zeide (lead author)
Abstract: As part of our "Learning from Experience: The Food Studies Program Directors Project," we asked leaders from a range of institutions to help develop a webinar series along with written accounts of their programs.
Year: 2022
Primary URL:
https://liberalarts.vt.edu/research-centers/food-studies-program/projects/webinars.htmlPrimary URL Description: Over the 2021-2022 academic year, we held three webinar panels as part of a series, “How Do Other Food Studies Programs Work?” We recorded all the sessions and had each presenter write up a Q&A about their programs, which are now available for broad dissemination. The webinars took place on October 8, 2021, featuring Alice Julier (Chatham University) and Daniel Bender (University of Toronto); October 21, 2021, featuring Megan Elias (Boston University) and Matthew Hoffman (University of Southern Maine); and April 1, 2022, featuring Krishnendu Ray (NYU), Stephen Wooten (University of Oregon), and Tony VanWinkle (Guilford College).