fysmsyllabusfall10final

8/8/2019 fysmsyllabusfall10final

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Tell me what you eat and I will tell you what you are.-- Anthelme Brillat-Savarin (1755-1826)

Sociology of FoodFall 2010MW 2-3:15

Dr. Idee Winfield

Contact: 88 Wentworth rm. 301 953-4899 [email protected] hours: MW 3:30-4:30; TTh 11-12

Why do we eat the way we do? Biology may dictate that we eat, but what and how we eat are organizedby wider cultural values and social practices. Whether we elect to Super Size our Happy Meals or relax withreruns of the Iron Chef, harvest lunch from vending machines and food courts, or coax sustenance out ofbackyard gardens and community soup kitchens, food remains central to how we engage physically, mentally

and emotionally with the world around us.

This course puts food -- something we all know a lot about --into its social contexts. We will explore how whatwe eat, and the way we eat it, expresses our social identities (as members of social classes, ethnic groups,religions, etc.); how preparing and consuming (or not consuming) food reproduce gender roles; how theeconomic system for producing and marketing food affects what (and how much) we eat; and how food is bothan object of politics (e.g., a target for government regulation) and a subject of collective action (e.g., a basis forsocial movements). Because collective identity, gender, business, and politics are all important topics insociology, the course covers a lot of sociological ground. By the end of the semester you will be a able to useyour sociological imagination to look at food and eating in its social context, and share that with others.

This course is also an introduction to college and the College of Charleston. By the end of the semester you willhave become part of the CofC community. You will know the location of social and academic resources and

how to use them. You will also learn something about what it means to be a member of the Charlestoncommunity. You will know more about the peninsula -- its food cultures and many restaurants, the vastdisparity in access to food, and the many different subcultures and neighborhoods within a short distance of theCollege.

As an introductory seminar, this is a discussion intensive course based on common readings. I do not plan tolecture for an entire class session. I will provide reading/discussion questions (in the syllabus) to guide yourreading, but the success of this courses rests with you and your active engagement in discussion of thequestions I provide and the topics and questions you bring to class.

Readings:Many of our readings are available on OAKS (see below) or on the Internet. Bring your reading to class it willbe good to have these with you to refer to.

In addition, we have two books:The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, by Michael Pollan.Brewing Justice: Fair Trade Coffee, Sustainability, and Survival, by Daniel Jaffee.

These are available at University Books of Charleston on King St, and the College Bookstore on Calhoun St .


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Earning Your Grade: Your final grade will be based on seven components:30% Midterm and Final Exams

These will be essay exams based on the reading/discussion questions in your syllabus. Each is worth 15% ofyour final grade. The Midterm is Oct. 6, the Wed before Fall Break. The Final is Dec. 8th. See the coursepolicies section for information about make-up exams.

10% Food in My Life Blog/Journal.At least once a week , write about food and eating in your life on your blog. Describe what you ate, where,when, with whom. Most importantly, note the social context what kinds of interactions occurred and howthat affected your eating experience. The best journals will go beyond description and show evidence ofdeep and thoughtful engagement with the ideas of the course as the course progresses. Take time tothink about how the time, place, or people affected your selection of food and youre eating experience.Think about how your understanding of these choices and experiences ties into the course readings. Be sureto make explicit reference to specific readings. Since it is difficult to recall what you ate even after 24 hours,make a point of reflecting at the end of a day. I will check these throughout the semester and makecomments. Only you and I will see the blog.

The last piece of this blog comes at the end of the semester when you will write a 250 word essay abouthow your first semester in college affected what, how, and with whom you eat. This should be in your blog

and completed no later than December 1st. Be sure to label this blog entry as your food and the firstsemester essay.

Note: Spelling, grammar, organization count. Do not write this in text message format or as a continuousstream of consciousness. Your blog should contain complete sentence and fully formed paragraphs. Donthesitate to use the Writing Center, even if youve been told you are a good writer. If needed, I will suggestyou use the Writing Lab to work on these skills. Also, read the handout on Writing Well on OAKS.

10% Service Learning.We will participate as a class in 6 hours of service to Gadsden Green Children's Gardenhttp://childrensgardenproject.org/gardens_chasdevacademy.html . It is a short ride on the downtown Cartabus. We will do this several afternoons during the week after the children return from school. You will writea reflective essay on your experience and how it relates to our class materials. Ill give you more

information in class.

25% Out of Class Group AssignmentsThere will be one out of class group scavenger hunt designed to teach you about food on peninsularCharleston and to get to know your new home. Ill tell you more in class and the assignments will be postedon OAKS. This is worth 10% of your final grade

For your second group project you will design a campus education program based on some aspect of thecourse that you want to explore in relation to the campus. For example, do students on campus know wheretheir food comes from? Do they know what happens to leftover and discarded food? There are many manypossibilities. We will discuss this in class and groups will meet with me to finalize the topic. After youcomplete the education initiative on campus, you will come back to the class and make an oral presentationon what you did, why, and what you learned. This is worth 15% of your final grade

No free riders in group projects in this class, which means that your peers evaluate your contribution tospecific aspects of the project and I adjust your grade accordingly. If the group gets an A, but you made littlecontribution, you will not receive and A.

15% Out of Class Individual AssignmentsYou will complete two individual out of class assignments one is a sociological observation and the otheris a library scavenger hunt. I will give you more information in class and the assignments will be posted onOAKS.


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10% EngagementIt really is true that we learn best by doing this includes actively engaging with the course material bycoming to class and bringing questions, offering examples, and participating in class activities. The same istrue of becoming a member of the College of Charleston community. Your transition will be much fasterand smoother when you engage in campus life.

One part of your engagement grade has to do with class. You earn your participation grade by attendingclass AND actively participating. To the dismay of some students, warming a seat does not count as

participation! To participate effectively and constructively, you need to come to each class prepared totalk about the readings. In fact, your most important task this semester is to learn to read effectively andefficiently. Dont be afraid to ask questions and offer personal reflection; just make sure it is related to thetopic at hand. Keep in mind that quality participation does not mean that all comments must be brilliantlyinsightful; this class is intended to foster critical thinking. Questions and incomplete thoughts about theseissues contribute to the process of learning. Also, we can and should argue about ideas because that is theheart and soul of a College education, but we will always do so with respect for each other. Theres a bigdifference between attacking an idea and attacking a person.

I reserve the option to institute reading quizzes if I find that the class is not doing the reading for theclass session listed on the syllabus.. Which would you rather do?I will occasionally ask you to prepare or do something for the next class discussion and complete written

assignments as part of in-class small group activities. I collectthis work at the end of class. In addition, I willmake note of constructive contributions to class discussion and group activities. You only receiveparticipation credit if you are present for the entire class session, turn in any preparatory assignment duringthat class session, and constructively contribute to group activities. You don't receive credit if you miss asmall group activity, don't come to class on time, or don't turn in the preparatory assignment during theclass session. No class participation work may be made-up. If you do this on a consistent basis throughoutthe semester, you will find it easy to bump your letter grade by half.

The second part of your engagement grade involves participating in activities on campus that will help youbecome a part of the campus community and help you learn about the resources available to you oncampus. Between now and the end of the semester you need to complete twelve (10) activities in 3different categories:

5 College CommunityActivities 3 College SuccessActivities 2 Organized Out of ClassEventsAttend a campusorganization meeting (onlyone meeting perorganization counts, butyou can try out 3 differentorganizations).

Attend a speaker on campus

Attend a Cougars ActivityBoard Eventhttp://cab.cofc.edu/

Participate in one of theactivities during Hunger andHomelessness week,November 14-20.

Put a team together for thegingerbread house contestat the end of the semester

Attend at least 4 different StudySkills Seminars offered by theCenter for Student Learning.These are offered onWednesdays at 6 pm in ECTR111Thursdays at 4 pm in ECTR115

The seminars are listed at:http://spinner.cofc.edu/studentlear

ningcenter/studyskills/seminars.php?referrer=webcluster&

Come to the Food FilmFridays at 6 p.m. and bringa friend. We will watchfood movies such asRatatouilleand Chocolatand eat Pizza.

Join the class in a field tripto North Charleston

performing Arts Center tosee Anthony Bourdain,from the Travel ChannelsNo Reservations. Fri. Nov.12 at 8 pm.

We can discuss otherpossibilities once we getto know each other.


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Grading:My philosophy on grades is this: They are yours to earn, not mine to give. Therefore, decide now what gradeyou want to receive, and earn it!

A=90-100% A-=89% B+=88% B=80-87% B-=79% C+=78% C=70-77% C=69% D=60-68 F=


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Class Policies: Make-up Exam policyTo be eligible to take a makeup midterm exam you must do three things:

1. You, or someone you trust, must call my office within 24 hours of the exam to say you are sick andwill miss the exam: 843.953.4899

2. You must present an excused absence verified through the office of the Dean of Students. I do notverify your absence and you do not have to bring me your excuse. Rather you should take your notefrom a physician or health services to the Deans office at 67 Glebe for verification. If you have adeath in the family, take a note from the funeral home to the Deans office. The Deans office willsend me a notification of whether you have provided a documented absence. Unverified self-reported absences are not eligible for a make-up exam. If you are a student athlete on a CofC team,make sure I have your travel schedule and see me about making arrangements for your absences.

3. You must make arrangements with me to take a makeup exam within one week of your return toclass.

There are no make-ups for in-class activities, homework, or reading quizzes.

Follow common rules of respect.Turn your cell phone COMPLETELY OFF as soon as you enter the classroom . Do not leave it on vibrateand do not pull it out during class to text message or check messages. Otherwise I get free phone calls forthe next 24 hours on your phone! I have friends in faraway places (.

Come to class, be on time, and do not sleep, chit-chat, or engage in any other kind of disruptive behavior inthe classroom. You may think you are anonymous, but I can still see and hear you and your neighborsdefinitely can too. Also, you are not invisible -- so don't walk in front of me or over top of your classmateswhen class is in session (I get really pissed off when that happens). If for some reason you must leave classearly, be sure to sit near the door. Once you get to class, stay there do not wander off to the bathroombecause you will miss important steps in the material.

Communicate with me.Talk to me, but do it at the right time. If you are having any problems with the material or have questionsabout an assignment come see me during office hours or make an appointment to talk. Before class is not agood time. I am busy setting up the technology and cannot give you my full attention. If you havesomething you want me to know about, please save it to the end of class.

Cheating is NOT a good thing.It should go without saying, but anyone caught violating the College of Charleston Honor Code will receivean F on the assignment and have to go before the Honor Board. Folks, it's just not worth it.

Cheating includes using someone elses work. You should be careful not to plagiarize by claiming someoneelse's words as your own. If you do not know what plagiarism is you will as part of your assignments in thecourse. You've now been told, so you cannot plead ignorance. An extension of this principle is groupassignments. It is cheating to claim the work of others as your own. That means that when you have agroup assignment, your name only goes on the assignment when you actually make an equitablecontribution ("equitable" does not mean "exactly the same," but it does mean that each member of thegroup has made a contribution in balance with everyone else in the group). I will ask each member of thegroup to assess everyone's contribution to the assignment and adjust your grades accordingly.


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Schedule *Part I. Food and the Sociological Imagination

What is the Omnivores Dilemma? What does it mean to say that food habits or foodways are social constructions? Does that mean it is all

in our heads? What does sociology mean by structural factors and how does this help us understand Americas

National Eating Disorder?How does the sociological approach help us understand the invention andchanges over time in the popularity of heirloom tomatoes?

How does the sociological approach help us understand and explain both the various ways societiessolve the omnivores dilemma and also why it persists today in contemporary US society?

Aug. 25 Welcome: Introductions and OverviewAug. 30 Berry: The Pleasures of Eating http://www.ecoliteracy.org/essays/pleasures-eating

The Omnivore's Dilemma: pp. 1-11, 297-303Day: They Eat Horses, Dont They?

http://www.chow.com/food-news/53692/they-eat-horses-dont-they/

Sept. 1 Germov and Williams: Introducing the Social Appetite: Towards a Sociology of Food and

NutritionJordan: The Heirloom Tomato as Cultural Object: Investigating Taste and Space.

Part II. What to Eat? Food, Identity, and Social Boundaries If we are what we eat, who are you? What do your meals and foodways reveal about the ways that social

class, race and ethnicity, femininity and masculinity, religion, family, region, sub-cultural loyalties,political commitments shape who you are?

Explain how we use commensality as a social glue to bind us together and create/maintain social order? How do structural factors, such as access to food, shape food choices and preferences? Do these come

into conflict with each other? How so and how do you handle it? In what ways is what and how we eat a form of cultural capital? How does it affect your access to or

exclusion from social networks that contain political and economic resources as well as emotional ties

of mechanical solidarity? In what ways are our meals the source of considerable pleasure (e.g., ritual feasts) and dread (e.g.,

concern about weight and body image)?

Who are You? Food as Social MarkerSept. 6 Anderson: Me Myself and the Others: Food as Social Marker.

Mortensen: Three Cups of Tea, Chapters 3 and 12

Sept. 8 Technology day: Rm 122 library setting up a private blog, OAKS questions, library resources.

Sept. 13, 15 Beoku-Betts: We Got Our Way of Cooking Things, Women Food and Preservation of CulturalIdentity Among the Gullah.

Bentley: Marthas Food: Whiteness of a Certain Kind.

Tuchman and Levine: "New York Jews and Chinese Food: The Social Construction of an EthnicPattern." http://soc.qc.cuny.edu/Staff/levine/SAFE-TREYF.pdf

Sept. 20 Finish Reading Mortensen Three Cups of Tea

Library Scavenger Hunt due in my OAKS dropbox before 2 pm. No late assignments allowed.Establishing and Enacting Regional/National Identity

Sept. 22 Shelton Reed: Barbecue Sociology: The Meat of the Matter.Roof: Blood in the barbecue? : Food and Faith in the American South.Explore: http://whatscookingamerica.net/AmericanRegionalFoods/RegionalAmericanIndex.htm


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Food, Lifestyles and Life Chances: Social ClassSept. 27 Germov and Williams: Class and Socioeconomic status.

Germov and Williams: Class and Symbolic Consumption: Cultural Capital and HabitusTolbert: The Aristocracy of the Market Basket: Self Service Food Shopping in the New South.

Sept. 29 Parker-Pope: A High Price for Healthy Foodhttp://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/12/05/a-high-price-for-healthy-food

Blanchard and Lyson: Food Availability & Food Deserts in the Nonmetropolitan South.

Gendered Food & EatingOct. 4 Druckman: Why Are There No Great Women Chefs/?

Mooney and Lorenz: The Effects of Food and Gender on Interpersonal PerceptionsStibbe: Masculinity, Health and Ecological Destruction

Oct. 6 Midterm ExamOct. 11 Fall Break , no class, yeah!!!

III. The Political Economy of Food What are specific ways that the industrial food system has become rationalized (McDonaldized)?

How do your own habits in the consumption of food reflect participation in and acceptance orresistance to McDonaldization?

The industrial food business is heavily dependent on persuading consumers to purchase value-added(processed) products. How do they do this? What are their strategies, and how do they manipulatecultural ideology to induce the American consumer to buy?

What are the many irrationalities within the industrial food system and what unintended consequencesdo they have?

How has food production and consumption helped to determine the global distribution and control ofpower and money?

How does the global system of political and economic power support the industrial food system? What is food security? How and to what extent is food insecurity a consequence of the politics of the

global food system? What is Fair Trade and how is it both a social movement and an alternative to neoliberal free market

policies?

Where Does Our Food Come From? The Omnivore's Dilemma in a McDonaldized (Starbuckized) WorldOct. 13 Ritzer: The McDonaldization of Society

The Ominivore's Dilemma: pp. 15-84.

Oct. 18 Shih: The Patented Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich: Food as Intellectual PropertyWatch: The Story of Stuff, http://www.storyofstuff.com/

The Irrationality of RationalityOct. 20, 25 The Omnivore's Dilemma: pp. 85-119

Robbins: Female Infants Growing BreastsHeeter: The Oil in Your OatmealWatch: The Story of Bottled Water: http://storyofstuff.org/bottledwater/Greider: The Last Farm CrisisCurran: Millions Spent Lobbying Food Safety http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2010/08/millions-spent-lobbying-food-safety-during-second-quarter/

Fast Food World: The Politics of Globalized FoodOct. 27, Jaffee: Brewing JusticeNov. 1, 3 Service Learning Reflective Essay due in my OAKS dropbox no later than 2 pm Oct. 27Group Scavenger Hunt due in my OAKS dropbox no later than 2 pm Nov. 1.

No late assignments allowed


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Resistance to Corporate Industrial Food: Current Social MovementsNov. 8, 10 The Omnivore's Dilemma: 123-129, 185-207, 239-261, 304-333

Browse these websites:Lowcountry Local First http://www.lowcountrylocalfirst.org/programs.phpSlow Food: http://www.slowfood.com/ and http://www.slowfoodcharleston.org/Community Supported Agriculture: http://www.localharvest.org/csa/The New American Dream (Groceries section)

http://www.newdream.org/marketplace/index.php#Watch The Meatrix: http://www.themeatrix1.com/and explore the website.

IV. Food as SpectacleNov. 15, 17 Pollan: "Out of the Kitchen, onto the Couch"

Kaufman: Debbie Does SaladO'Neill: "Food Porn"Pariseau: Has Food Styling Gone Too Far?

Campus Education Project must be completed no later than Nov. 20 thNov. 22 Siskind: The Invention of Thanksgiving

Nov. 24 Thanksgiving Break , gobble gobble.

Nov. 29, Dec. 1 Class PresentationsFinal Blog essay due by midnight Dec. 1 No late assignments allowedDec. 6 Wrap-up and ReviewSociological Observation of Thanksgiving due in my OAKS dropbox before 2 pm.Last day to provide documentation of campus community activties, due at start of class.Dec. 8 Final Exam 12-3 pm., our classroom

* The Schedule is subject to change. Any changes will be announced in class.

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