GEOG201

Description

Section information text: How does our modern penchant for caffeine, sweets, fresh produce, and meat relate to imperialism and inequality? Across time and space, humans have ingested plants, animals, and substances for sustenance, nourishment, pleasure, medicine, and spirituality. Every food and meal we consume represents a confluence of tastes, cultures, and powers that can be traced back to the interconnected histories and geographies of slavery, colonialism, racism, patriarchy, militarism, and capitalism. This seminar is intended to help students develop foundational knowledge in critical agro-food studies. Through readings, written assignments, discussions, and group projects, students will examine big questions, such as the colonial roots of children's sweet tooth; the socio-ecological "hoofprint" of animal-based diets; the geopolitical origins of the calorie; gender and racial ideologies undergirding the invention of "Betty Crocker" and "Aunt Jemima"; and the future possibilities of food.