Food Studies
Overview
Food studies is a burgeoning, interdisciplinary, inherently politicized field of scholarship, practice, and art that examines the relationship between food and all aspects of the human experience, including culture and biology, individuals and society, global pathways and local contexts.
The minor invites the growing number of students interested in food to advance their research and classroom studies of complex food related issues across a broad range of curricula. The program provides a curricular offering and intellectual framework to complement the co-curricular energy around food on campus, increasing the rigor and discipline with which students use food as a lens for exploration and critical thinking.
With exposure to interdisciplinary resources across the breadth of liberal arts, students will learn to:
- Understand the complex contemporary and historical factors that affect food production and consumption as well as human physiological dietary needs.
- Consider food system options, comparing their environmental, sociocultural, economic, and health impacts.
- Think critically about food and agricultural challenges and recommendations.
- Develop ideas about how they can contribute to food system solutions and explore multiple pathways to transformation.
Minor Requirements
Requirements
Students must complete 20 units of food-related courses. Courses must be taken from a minimum of two different departments. At least three courses applied to the food studies minor must be taken outside the student’s major program.
Students must complete at least one course from the following:
| KINE 210 | Nutrition and Homeostasis | 4 units |
| SOC 240 | Sociology of Food | 4 units |
| UEP 306 | Food and the Environment | 4 units |
Electives
| DWA 283 | Soft Power: How Nations Interact Without War | 4 units |
| HIST 346 | The Transformation of Urban and Rural China | 4 units |
| KINE 298 | Community Health and Fitness Research | 2 units |
| KINE 306 | Biochemistry of Exercise and Energy | 4 units |
| KINE 398 | Community Health and Fitness Research | 2 units |
| PSYC 490 | Contemporary Topics Seminar | 4 units |
| RELS 205 | Holy Sh*t!: Engaging the Materiality of Religion | 4 units |
| UEP 101 | Environment and Society | 4 units |
| UEP 246 | Applied Projects in Sustainability | 2 units |
| UEP 247 | Sustainable Oxy: Urban Agriculture and Sustainable Landscape Practicum | 2 units |
| UEP 303 | Sustainable Development | 4 units |
Students may also apply MUSC 385 as an elective for the Food Studies minor if they have enrolled in the "Music and Food" section of the course.
Only select topics of UEP 295 have been approved to apply as an elective. See program chair for more information. Students must file the appropriate paperwork with the Registrar's Office in order to apply this course to the minor.
Transfer Credit Policies
Courses approved for transfer by the appropriate department or program will be considered to apply toward the Food Studies minor. Students should reference the
Transfer Credit section for details.
Faculty
Regular Faculty
John T. Lang, chair
Associate Professor, Sociology
B.A., M.A., Ph.D., Rutgers University
Advisory Committee
Alexander F. Day
Associate Professor, History
B.A., Colby College; M.A., Ph.D., University of California, Santa Cruz
Carmel Levitan
Associate Professor, Cognitive Science
B.A., Stanford University; Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley
Marcella Raney
Associate Professor, Kinesiology
A.B., Occidental College; Ph.D., University of Southern California
Affiliated Faculty
Brian Clearwater
Non-Tenure Track Assistant Professor, Core Program
B.A., University of Tennessee; M.A., PhD., University of California, Santa Barbara
Nancy Dess
Professor, Psychology
B.A., University of California, Los Angeles; Ph.D., University of Minnesota
John Chung-En Liu
Assistant Professor, Sociology
B.S., National Taiwan University; M.A., Yale University; M.E.M., Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies; Ph.D., University of Wisconsin-Madison
Amy Holmes-Tagchungdarpa
Associate Professor, Religious Studies
B.A., Victoria University of Wellington; Ph.D., Australian National University
Andrew Jalil
Associate Professor, Economics
A.B., Sc.B., Brown University; Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley
David Kasunic
Associate Professor, Music
B.A., Amherst College; M.F.A., Ph.D., Princeton University
Martha Matsuoka
Associate Professor, Urban and Environmental Policy
A.B., Occidental College; M.C.P., University of California, Berkeley; Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles
Clair Morrissey
Associate Professor, Philosophy
B.A., University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; M.A., Ph.D., University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Bhavna Shamasunder
Associate Professor, Urban and Environmental Policy
B.S./B.A., University of California, San Diego; M.ES., Yale University; Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley
Jane Schmitz
Non-Tenure Track Assistant Professor, Urban and Environmental Policy
B.A., Tufts University; Ph.D., Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Derek Shearer
Stuart Chevalier Professor, Diplomacy and World Affairs
B.A., Yale University; Ph.D., The Union Graduate School