Course focuses on how people use food to identify themselves as individuals and as groups. Students will ascertain the meaning and significance of food in different cultures by exploring the way that ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic status and religion influence our food choices. In addition, they will also examine how people transmit and preserve culture using food. Through reading scholarly articles, personal essays, book excerpts, newspaper articles, cookbooks and viewing films, students will examine the intricate relationships that people have with food. Course looks critically at the following questions: how can food have different meanings and uses for different people? How does food function both to foster community feeling and drive wedges among people? What are some prevailing academic theories that help society understand some of these patterns of identification and how do societies change over time?
Liberal Arts Core/CORE Equivalent - satisfies the requirement for Society and Social Sciences