Time Schedule:
Julie Shayne
B CUSP 104
Bothell Campus
Examines an important social issue such as ecology, art, political change, the power of media, educational reform, or the role of science in contemporary culture through interdisciplinary investigation, and the lens of the visual, literary, and performing arts. Co-requisite: either B CUSP 101, B CUSP 107, or B CUSP 110.
Class description
Our class will explore the fundamental role of eating and food production in shaping processes of personal, cultural, and economic development. By focusing on the production, distribution, preparation, and eating of food across different times and places, we will consider how food practices can help us understand some crucial questions about culture and development. Among those questions are the following: • How do food practices act as “ingredients” in the creation of identity (political, ethnic, gender, racial, religious, etc.)? • How do food practices in the United States impact the rest of the planet, particularly in the Third World? • How have urbanization, modernization, and globalization changed food practices? • How do people collectively challenge the cockeyed distribution of abundant resources as manifest through food practices? Our inquiries into these and other question will blend disciplines from the social sciences and humanities, and will draw on a range of genres (literature, film, popular media, poetry, and so forth). Most important, the process of exploring our topic will give you a sustained opportunity to develop and practice some of the fundamental intellectual skills that will be key to your success in and beyond university life.
Student learning goals
To explore individual decisions about food consumption to social consequences around the world
To understand how food culture, globalization, gender, and economics are related to one another
To introduce students to the expectations, methods, and resources of university life
To increase skills in reading, writing, and research
To form links between academic life with forms of community engagement
To form a learning community with peers and professors
General method of instruction
Lectures, small and large group discussions, films, guest speakers, workshops, and fieldtrips.
Recommended preparation
N/A
Class assignments and grading
Assignments will be a combination of short and long writing assignments based on readings, films, discussions, and fieldtrips.
Critical analysis and clear writing will be central to receiving good grades
