Teaching Food and Culture by Swift, Candice Lowe; Wilk, Richard R;

Short description:

A group of experienced, innovative teachers explore methods of teaching about food and using food to teach the basics of various disciplines.

Long description:

With the rapid growth and interest in food studies around the U.S. and globally, the original essays in this one-of-a-kind volume aid instructors in expanding their teaching to include both the latest scholarship and engage with public debate around issues related to food. The chapters represent the product of original efforts to develop ways to teach both with and about food in the classroom, written by innovative instructors who have successfully done so. It would appeal to community college and university instructors in anthropology and social science disciplines who currently teach or want to develop food-related courses. This book -illustrates the creative ways that college instructors have tackled teaching about food and used food as an instructional device;-aims to train the next generation of food scholars to deal with the complex problems of feeding an ever-increasing population -contains an interview with Sidney Mintz, the most influential anthropologist shaping the study of food

“As Food Studies courses multiply and growing numbers of students are eager to reflect critically on all things food, this book offers stimulating ideas for topics, readings, and assignments to instructors, both veterans and new to the field. The editors have gathered thoughtful contributions that reach out well beyond anthropology, providing useful pedagogical tools to all those who want to teach about contemporary society with and through food.”

—Fabio Parasecoli, The New School

“Teaching Food and Culture offers exciting, innovative pedagogical approaches to topics across the spectrum of the anthropology of food. Firmly grounded in the authors’ respective specialisms, collectively these chapters demonstrate the vital importance in the study of food of connecting multiple perspectives, theories and methods. The volume will be an indispensable resource for teachers in the anthropology of food and food studies.”

—Jakob Klein, Department of Anthropology and Food Studies Centre, SOAS, University of London, co-founder of the SOAS master’s programme in the Anthropology of Food

Table of Contents:

Part 1: Teaching Food Chapter 1: Introduction: Teaching With and Through Food, Candice Lowe Swift and Richard Wilk  Chapter 2: Interview with Sidney Mintz, Candice Lowe Swift and Richard Wilk  Part 2: Nutrition and Health  Chapter 3: Teaching Obesity: Stigma, Structure, and Self, Alexandra Brewis, Amber Wutich and Deborah Williams  Chapter 4: Are We What Our Ancestors Ate? Introducing Students to the Evolution of Human Diet, Jeanne Sept  Chapter 5: Just Milk? Nutritional Anthropology and the Single Food Approach, Andrea S. Wiley  Part 3: Food Ethics and the Public  Chapter 6: Teaching the Experience and Ethics of Consumption and Food Supply, Peter Benson  Chapter 7: Ethnography of Farmers Markets: Studying Culture, Place, and Food Democracy, Carole Counihan  Chapter 8: Using Volunteer Service in Courses about Food, Janet Chrzan  Part 4: Food, Identity, and Consumer Society  Chapter 9: Teaching Restaurants, David Sutton and David Beriss  Chapter 10: Developing Pedagogies for the Anthropology of Food, Brian Stross  Chapter 11: Teaching Communication and Language with Food, Amber O’Connor  Chapter 12: The Last Course: Relating Research to Teaching about Food, Penny van Esterik