Experimental College Instructor: Rafi Grosglik, Ph.D.

Tufts University E-mail:grosglik@brandeis.edu

Food, Culture and Society

Syllabus – Working Copy

Course Description
“Tell me what you eat and I will tell you who you are.”
-- Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, (1755-1826).

Where does our food come from? How does the study of food help us understand what we call “society”,
“culture” and “identity”? This course explores connections between what we eat and who we are through
the study of how personal identities and social groups are formed via food production, preparation, and
consumption. The course examines the social context shaping the literal and symbolic production of food.
We will discuss the cultural meanings attached to food, the institutional and industrial creation of food, its
preparation, and rituals of eating. We will work towards a better understanding of how food is related to
identity, ethnicity, religion, politics, economics, nationalism, gender, health and environment.
We will survey some of the major debates, controversies and issues in food studies, and relate these to
contemporary debates on environmental sustainability, globalization, social class, and social justice.
In the first few weeks, we will focus on the role that food plays in the formation of group identities. Next,
we consider the industrialization of the food supply and globalization of food. Finally, we consider the
corresponding efforts to find alternatives.

Learning Goals
Students who complete this course will:
1. Explore how systems of food provision and consumption are related to social, cultural, and political
factors.
2. Gain an understanding of sociological, anthropological and historical perspectives on food and eating.
3. Assess contemporary debates related to food production.

Course Requirements:
A)   Attendance and active participation. Active participation includes a number of components:
1.   Being present in class and actively involving yourself in class discussion.
2.   Contributing throughout the semester to the class on-line discussion board. Your posts can
either answer the question posted by me or raise your own questions or insights regarding the
reading or the week’s topic. Students are also encouraged to respond to each other.
B)   Complete two short paper covering readings and other course material (3 pages each) – 40% of
final grade.
C)   Final research paper of 10-15 pages. 60% of your final grade. Your paper should present
sociological/cultural/historical analysis of a culinary case study or any culinary text (films about
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 food, cookbooks, gastronomic magazines, food in arts, etc.). You will outline what scholars know
(and do not know) about the food item (or the case/text) and describe your own analysis (based on
your accumulated academic knowledge). This type of assignment is designed to give you experience
in writing literature reviews, and demonstrate intellectual mastery of culinary issues, which are
related to culture and society studies. If you have questions regarding sources, do not hesitate to
consult me. I hope that each of you will take advantage of office hours. I am delighted and eager to
discuss your topics and research questions and I look forward to meeting you and coming to know
you during course of the semester.

Course Schedule and Bibliography

Week 1 - Introduction, Meanings of Food and Eating
Claude Fischler, "Food, Self and Identity." Social Science Information, Vol. 27, No. 2, 1988, pp. 275-292.
Bob Ashley, Joanne Hollows, Steve Jones, and Ben Taylor, Food and Cultural Studies. London: Routledge,
2004, chap. 4.

Julia Twigg, "Vegetarianism and the Meanings of Meat." In Anne Murcott, ed., The Sociology of Food and
Eating: Essays on the Sociological Significance of Food. Aldershot, Hants: Gower, 1983, pp. 18-30.

Week 2 - Social Conditions of Cooking and Eating

Alice P. Julier, Eating Together: Food, Friendship, and Inequality. Urbana, IL: University
of Illinois Press, 2013, chaps. 3-5.

Mead, Margaret, "Changing significance of food." Journal of Nutrition Education, Vol. 2, No. 1, 1970, pp. 17-
19.

Week 3 – Food and Identity: Ethnicity

Narayan, Uma, "Eating cultures: incorporation, identity and Indian food." Social Identities, Vol. 1, No. 1,
1995, pp.63-86.

Van Den Berghe, Pierre L, "Ethnic cuisine: culture in nature." Ethnic and Racial Studies, Vol. 7, No. 3, 1984,
pp. 387-397.

Rachel Slocum, "Whiteness, Space and Alternative Food Practice." Geoforum, Vol. 38, No.
3, 2007, pp. 520-533.

Week 4 - Food and Identity: Nationalism

Raviv, Yael, "Falafel: A National Icon." Gastronomica, Vol.3, No. 33, 2003, pp. 20-25.
View + Discussion:
"Make Hummus Not War". Directed by: Trevor Graham.

Short Paper Assignment – Instructions will be provided by the lecturer.

Week 5 – Food and Identity: Class

Bourdieu, Pierre, Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste. Cambridge, MA: Harvard
University Press, 1984, pp.169-200.

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Wendy Wills, Kathryn Backett-Milburn, Mei-Li Roberts, and Julia Lawton, "The Framing
of Social Class Distinctions through Family Food and Eating Practices." Sociological
Review, Vol. 59, No. 4, November 2011, pp. 725-740.

Week 6 – Food and Identity: Gender

Counihan, Carole, Steven Kaplan (Eds.), Food and Gender: Identity and Power. New-York: Routledge,
1998, pp. 1-11.

Cairns, Kate, and Josée Johnston, Food and Femininity. New York: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2015, pp. 23-
41.

Week 7 - Food and Memory

Holtzman, Jon, "Food and Memory." Annual Review of Anthropology, Vol. 35, No.1, 2006, pp. 361-378.

David Sutton, "Whole Foods: Revitalization through Everyday Synesthetic Experience." Anthropology and
Humanism, Vol. 25, No. 2, 2000, pp. 120-130.

View: clip from “Ratatouille”. Directed by: Brad Bird.

Week 8 – Food and Power

Sidney Mintz, Tasting Food, Tasting Freedom: Excursions into Eating, Culture, and the Past. Boston:
Beacon Press, 1996, pp. 17-32.

Stephen Mennell, "On the Civilizing of Appetite." Theory, Culture and Society, Vol. 4, No.
2, 1987, pp. 373-403.

Week 9 – Industrializing the Food Supply

Tracie McMillan, The American Way of Eating: Undercover at Walmart, Applebee's, Farm
Fields and the Dinner Table. New York: Scribner's, 2012, Chaps. 1, 2.

Michelle Szabo, "The Challenges of "Re-engaging with Food": Connecting Employment, Household
Patterns and Gender Relations to Convenience Food Consumption in North America." Food, Culture &
Society, Vol. 14, No. 4, 2011, pp. 547-566.

View: clip from “Food Inc”. Directed by: Robert Kenner.

Week 10 – Globalization of Food

Ritzer, George, The McDonaldization Thesis. Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press. 1998, pp. 81-94.

Theodore Bestor, "How Sushi Went Global." Foreign Policy, Vol. 121, 2000, pp. 54-63.

Short Paper Assignment – Instructions will be provided by the lecturer.

Week 11 - Food Security and Hunger: Local and Global

Tarasuk, Valerie, and Joan Eakin. 2005. "Food assistance through “surplus” food: Insights from an
ethnographic study of food bank work." Agriculture and Human Values. Vol 22, No. 2, 2005, pp. 177-186.

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Janet Fitchen, "Hunger, Malnutrition and Poverty." In Counihan Carole and Penny Van Esterik, eds. Food
and Culture: A Reader (First Edition). New-York: Routledge.1997, pp. 384-401.

Week 12 –Alternative and Ethical Eating

Roberta Sassatelli and Federica Davolio, "Consumption, Pleasure and Politics: Slow Food and the Politico-
Aesthetic Problematization of Food." Journal of Consumer Culture, Vol. 10, No. 2, 2010, pp. 202-232.

Guthman, Julie. "Fast food/organic food: reflexive tastes and the making of ‘yuppie chow’." Social
and Cultural Geography, Vol. 4, No. 1, 2003, pp. 45-58.

Week 13 – Feast: Potluck, instruction for final research paper.

Bring to class a food item of significance to you. Be prepared to speak briefly about your offering to our
feast.