Food, Culture & Politics

Calendar

LEC #	TOPICS	KEY DUE DATES
1	Introduction to food, culture, and politics
Part 1: Foundations
2	Food paradoxes and dilemmas in the US
3	Food and power in the global arena
4	Waste amidst plenty In-class viewing and discussion: BUFFET: All You Can Eat Las Vegas. Directed by Natasha Schüll. Color, 30 min. 2006. In-class discussion: “What Makes a Critical Essay”
5	Cheap meat and expensive fish Written Assignment 1: Cheap Meat distributed
Part 2: What Makes Food Good?
6	Good food is culinarily authentic	Written Assignment 1: Cheap Meat due
7	Good food is culturally authentic In-class viewing and discussion: Excerpt from The Meaning of Food. Series directed by Maria Gargiulo, Vivian Kleiman, Kris Kristensen, and Karin Williams. Color, 180 min. 2004.
8	Good food is convenient
9	Good food tastes good In-class tasting: Chocolate
10	Good food feeds relationships	Written Assignment 2: revision of Cheap Meat due
11	Good food is symbolically pure In-class exercise: Bring in a photo of a meal you’ve eaten in the past week. ITEMIZE and DECIPHER it as A MEAL, offering a symbolic, structural reading akin to Mary Douglas’s. Why (and in what contexts) does this count as a “meal”? This meal might be representative of your daily diet, or an exception to it. We are not being food police here, but rather doing symbolic analyses of empirical data.
12	In-class writing workshop with Karen Pepper, lecturer, MIT Comparative Media Studies / Writing Brainstorming / free-write for final papers, tips for doing library research, follow-up on deciphering exercise Written Assignment 3: Food Memory distributed
13	Good food reminds you of your mother (or homeland or childhood) In-class viewing and discussion: Excerpt from Ratatouille. Directed by Brad Bird and Jan Pinkava. Color, 111 min. 2007. Excerpt from The Meaning of Food. Series directed by Maria Gargiulo, Vivian Kleiman, Kris Kristensen, and Karin Williams. Color, 180 min. 2004.	Written Assignment 3: Food Memory due
14	On gastropolitics Written Assignment 4: Food Memory, Revisited distributed
15	Good food is nutritional In-class viewing and discussion: Excerpt from Frontline: Diet Wars. Directed by Jon Palfreman. Color, 60 min. 2004. “Eat the Butter.” YouTube. Final Paper Proposal information distributed	Written Assignment 4: Food Memory, Revisited due
16	Good food is (engineered to taste) real In-class peer-reviewing of final paper proposals—bring 2 hard copies to class to share with peers
17	Good food is appreciated, not appropriated	Revised final paper proposal due
18	Good food is medicinal Guest lecture: Alex Rewegan, MIT-HASTS
19	Any food is good food if you’re hungry
20	Good food is just In-class viewing: Food Forward, Ep. 8: Food (Justice) For All. Directed by Greg Roden. Color, 24 min. (**View the first story—Salinas, CA) In-class tasting: Vermont cheese
Part 3: Food Futures
21	Good food is sense-ible/able
22	How good is the future of agriculture? In-class viewing: The Future of Food. Directed by Deborah Koons Garcia. Color, 88 mins. 2004.	Final paper draft due
23	Guest lecture: Andrea McClave, MIT Integrated Design & Management, on developing an MIT food map app
24	Thanksgiving
25	Good food sustains us
26	Final paper panel presentations
27	Potluck and final paper panel presentations Bring to class a food item of significance to you (perhaps a nostalgia food, or an item from the meal you deciphered, etc.). Be prepared to speak briefly about your offering for our feast.	Final paper due