food in us course

Course Description: This course investigates the geography of foods and foodways in terms of food traditions, roles and regional identities, demographic movements (immigration), resource use, cultural, economics and production, technological influences, and change due to popularization and lifestyles. The course is grounded in geographic parameters of place and spatial relationships with a primary focus on the creation of food landscapes and their relationships to cultural use and food diffusion, ethnicity, societal trends and economic impact. The Thematic Focus for this course is Valuing the Diversity of Human Experience. The Distribution Block for GGR 148 is Cultural Understanding. Essential skills assessed in the course include critical reading, critical thinking, effective writing, and spatial analysis through class discussions, examinations, written assignments and readings. As with any course of this nature, there are many facets, including multiples of ethnic influences, environmental factors and even consumer choice. Only a small portion of information can be presented here. I do hope, however, that you will continue your learning and interest in this subject by reading more of the texts, travel, and in your life experiences.

Course Structure:This course is web lecture-based with additional information coming from the texts, reserves and websites. There are three exams, two written exercises, a brief intro exercise and three discussion/response assignments that will be posted online.

Objectives:The student will:

1. have a broad understanding of regional food identities and underlying factors that have created these traditions and understand the importance of selected foods in cultural identity. These are to be demonstrated through web discussions on cultures and specific ethnic influences, as well as economic and natural environment influences. Sources for discussions will be taken from readings, web lectures and websites. (critical thinking, critical reading, effective writing). A geographic perspective is used.

2. discern relationships fostered by true or false place imagery, sense of place, and the use of iconography in the creation of place. (critical thinking, critical reading)

3. assess the effect of geographic themes such as location and natural environment, migration and demographics, on ethnic enclaves, availability, and food tradition changes. This is accomplished through written discussions that analyze the local food landscape and its locational attributes, and interpretation of assigned readings in examinations and class discussion-responses. (critical reading, effective writing, spatial analysis)

4. provide critical analysis of the student’s own cultural, ethnic, and geographic experiences relating to foods and foodways through self-documentation. This is accomplished through written assignments. The results are expected to be shared with the class which will enhance the understanding of differences in student backgrounds and experiences as well as the student’s own self-awareness. (critical thinking, effective writing)

Required Texts:

The Taste of American Place eds. Shortridge and Shortridge.1998

It’s All American Food Rosengarten 2003

One is a cookbook, one a set of historic geography readings. The information is also emphasized in current websites the students access.

Additional Readings:www.carryingcapacity.org/calfood.html

E-reserves are linked from the homepage in the reserves folder.

Not required but FYI – for those of you who can’t get enough food and culture lore……

Additional resources I use: (If you love food contexts, these are great! Now out of print (tragic!!!) so get them where you can for your personal use!)

Smithsonian Folklife Cookbook eds. Kirlin and Kirlin 1991

I Hear America Cooking Fussell 1997

In addition, students are invited to look over their own copies of compiled cookbooks for the lecture on the cookbook as autobiography (place, culture, resources, and self-identity), ask friends, parents, relatives, etc… for information on traditions, and of course you can always share your cooking!

Assessment of Outcomes:

Assignments:

There are two graded written assignments other than the 3 discussion- response items (and the intro). These written assignments are to be typed in single-spaced 12 point font and will be turned into the professor/TA using the assignment dropbox or posted as instructed and on time.

Personal Paper on Your Geography of Food (You take your culture with you, and you are where you’ve been is located on the homepage. This exercise that asks the student to trace his/her food roots including family history, culture, celebration, and places lived or visited. This provides an assessment of how family traditions and culture have been lost or maintained, and how the student’s geographical experience relates to current or desired food choice. Students will be expected to share these histories/geographies with the class and to respond to at least one other student's experience. (see home page- written assignments)

Compiled Cookbook – GSP148. This exercise requires students to define a food/dish that holds meaning to them, categorize the recipe according to compiled cookbook standards, provide the recipe and instruction, and explain the food and its meaning – in general if possible, and as it pertains to the student’s experience. Students are encouraged to connect with relatives or friends in their search/decision. (Neither the professor nor university accept liability for the recipes) (see home page- written assignments)

Class Participation:

All students are expected to participate in the structured discussions and responses. Read the assigned chapters or articles prior to the date assigned. Informed and well-thought out discussion is expected. Foods and foodways and traditions are very personal to each of us. This is not an ethics or political statement course, rather a course that covers a lot of topics and may introduce you to some unfamiliar concepts and traditions. I expect professionalism and respect in the responses (no “Ugh!” or “ how can you….” or “that’s wrong to do”) as we all have our own values and traditions. I hope that you will seek to better understand your peers as well as yourselves in this course (“I had never heard of that” or I did not eat that growing up” or “it’s interesting to hear about that”).

Exams/Quizzes:

There will be three exams/quizzes including the final. The exams/quizzes will contain objective (ex. multiple choice, true-false) questions. The final (third exam/quiz) is not cumulative. Exams are structured to evaluate to student’s understanding of concepts and information presented in class and the readings including e-reserves and websites.

Learning Portfolios

The written exercises completed in class are appropriate for the student to include in his/her learning portfolio. These assignments are written and demonstrate critical thinking, effective writing, and spatial analysis.

Grading (% of total points):

90-100 A

80-89 B

70-79 C

60-69 D

59 and below is failing

Introduce yourself 5 pts

Discussion/Response Participation 75 pts (15 discussion/10 response X 3)

Exams 180 pts (60 each)       Compiled cookbook 20 pts

Personal Paper and Response 55 (40 paper/15 response)

335 pts total

Note: A structured extra credit opportunity will be announced by the professor

As this is a 100-level course, grades will be reported to the registrar at mid point if required.

SCHEDULE (subject to change by professor if needed)

Note: e-reserve readings are located on the homepage in the reserve file. Readings are Greene (Native American), Ireland (Great Plains), Humphrey (West and Southwest), and Neustadt (New England)

Content/Topic Reading  S=shortridge  R=rosengarten

MODULE 1

Introduction, Foodways: Food and American Culture (100 quickies survey) R pp. viiii-xv, 1-4, S pp.1-8, ch 10+ (the intro to 10 pages)

Food-Place Associations (Maps)

The Compiled Cookbook as Food Autobiography S ch 8, 9,   look at R

Culture, Resource Use, and Diffusion: Indigenous Influences,

The Three Sisters, Wild Rice e-reserve (Greene)

“Exotic?” Hawaii: Cultural Mixing and

Local Food: the mixing of Asian, American, and

Hawaiian traditions, the rise of HRC (economics) S ch 3,   R pp.400-404

Mid Atlantic: The Colonial Palate, Native

American Food Adoption and Resource Use

Specialty Food Items and Identity

Ethnic Enclaves in Large Urban Areas: R pp.5-6, 34, 99-101, 260-1, 274, 275-6,

287-8, 289-91, 293, 304-5,     S ch 14

Quiz 1

MODULE 2

The South: The Southern Identity, Soulfood and the African-American Experience, Cajun v.

Creole, Diffusion into Popular Culture S ch12, r pp. 69-70, 300-04, 308-310, 312-320, 322, 346-49, 351-2,    NPR audio (link in lecture)

Southwest and the “Wild” West: Tex-Mex,

Mexican,or Other? Tex-Mex, Cal-Mex, New

Mexican,and Arizona Mex Differences S ch 16,     R pp. 116-18, 122-23, 127-8, 357, 359-61, 372-3, 394-5,      e- reserve (Humphrey)

“Wild” West Continued,

Resource Use: Economics and Adaptations

Wild Game Use and Throw Away Parts S ch 2,    e- reserve (Humphrey)

Upper Midwest and Midwest

In-migrations and Ag-Food Specializations,

Traditional (German, Cornish) and New (Arab)

Influences on the Food Landscape S ch 1, 4      R pp.43-44, 56,59-60, 89-91, 96, 112-14, 235-8, 365-71, 383-5

Quiz 2

MODULE 3

The Great Plains: Adversity, Ethnic Solidarity,

Maintaining Culture?: Eastern Europeans and

Ingredient Substitution, Return of a Resource,

How Environment Influences Ethnic Choice   S ch 11,      e- reserve (Ireland)

California and the Pacific Northwest (inclu. AK): Ethnic Diversity

and Nature make an Ecotopia, Fusion Cuisine,

Popular Campaigns

Urbanization, immigration, and the

Impacts to California’s production landscape   S ch 5, 7      R pp. 385-91, 398, 150-3, 156-8, 163-5, 181-3, 186-7, 191-2

Movements: Slow Food and Locavores Websites

New England: Clam Bakes to Boiled Dinners,

Acculturation meets “Yankee Ingenuity”,

Iconography and the Maine Lobster:

a social and cultural misalignment     S ch 6      R pp. 456-7, 254-60,      e- reserve (Neustadt)

skim chapter 19 in shortridge, look for the top 3 cuisines in the US


Quiz 3

Note: 8, 4 and 3-week courses run the full amount of weeks. There is no separate finals week.

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