ES 499/599 Food and ethnic identity: Eating at the border
W10, CRN 37113, 3 Credit hours
Instructor: Norma Cárdenas, Ph.D.Time: TR 2:00-3:20pm
Office: 230B Strand Agricultural HallLocation: NASH 204
Phone: 541-737-3637Office hours: TR 1:00-1:50pm or by apt
E-mail:
Food not only nourishes but also signifies.
Claude Fischler
If you are what you eat, then you are fast, cheap, and easy.
Bumper sticker
Ethnic cuisine is the easiest and most pleasant way to cross ethnic boundaries.
Pierre van den Berghe
Course description: Through interdisciplinary readings, lectures, films, and discussions, this comparative course will examine the relationship between food and identity. Food, from its production to consumption, is a powerful symbol of social and cultural meaning. As an expression of identity and subjectivity, food also marks borders between humans and non-humans, plants and animals, nature and culture, tradition and modernity, etc. The border, thus, serves as a metaphor for hierarchical stratification in terms of race, ethnicity, class, gender, and sexuality. Othering, abjecting, stereotyping, and appropriating ethnic foods into commodified objects resembles U.S. multiculturalism and its penchant for tolerance.
Special attention will be given to how culinary culture is shaped by the dynamics of colonialism, immigration, urbanization, and global capitalism.
Course objectives: Through readings, lectures, discussions, and films, students will:
1) develop and apply critical thinking and critical writing competencies about food and culture
2) identify the meanings of food among different cultures, and explore the ways in which geography, cultural, political, and economic forces interact to influence our food choices, health, and nutritional status;
3) examine how factors such as race, ethnicity, class, gender, sexuality, religion, the media, and corporate capitalism affect the foods we choose to eat (and those we choose to avoid) and the manner in which we consume them;
4) evaluate how food functions both to unite and separate people; and
5) analyze the politics of food and the significance of advocacy and public action through a directed research and service learning project
Required books:
Abarca, Meredith E. (2006). Voices in the kitchen: Views of food and the world from working-class Mexican and Mexican American women. Texas A&M Press. 978-1-58544-531-8
Lee, Jennifer 8. (2009). The Fortune Cookie Chronicles. Twelve. 0446698970
Harper, Breeze V. (2010). Sistah Vegan: Black Female Vegans Speak on Food, Identity, Health, and Society. Lantern Books. 1590561457
LaDuke, Winona. (1999). All our relations: Native Struggles for Land and Life. South End Press. 0896085996
Nguyen, Bich Minh. (2008). Stealing Buddha's Dinner. Penguin 0143113038
Williams-Forson, Psyche. A. (2006). Building Houses out of Chicken Legs: Black Women, Food, and Power. The University of North Carolina Press 080785686X
Lahiri, Jhumpa. (1999). Interpreter of Maladies. Mariner Books. 039592720X
Recommended books:
Belasco, W. (2008). Food: The Key concepts. Berg Publishers.
Counihan, C. & Van Esterik, P. (Eds.). (2008). Food and Culture: A Reader.New York: Routledge
Gabaccia, D. (2000). We are what we eat: Ethnic food and the making of Americans. Harvard University Press.
Keller Brown, L. & Mussell, K. (1985). Ethnic and regional foodways in the United States: The Performance of Group Identity. University of Tennessee.
Pillsbury, R. (1998). No Foreign Food: The American Diet in Time and Place. Boulder: Westview Press.
Deutsch, J. & Miller, J. (2007, November). “Food Studies: A Multidisciplinary Guide to the Literature,” Bibliographic Essay, Choice, 7–15.
Dirks Food Habits Bibliography
Course Assignments
Attendance and participation – 5%
Attendance and participation are required. You are expected to actively participate in class discussions. The class is organized around confianza or trust, so the responsibility for a lively exchange is shared among students and the professor. Your comments may draw from personal experience, but they should also draw from your critical analysis of the course material. Therefore, you should be prepared to make meaningful responses that expand on the course material and add to our shared knowledge.
Short Essay – 15%
Over the course of the term, students will write a short 2-page essay (4-pages for graduate students) on a text not chosen for the group presentation. The essay should provide a careful and focused response to a question or issue raised in the work. For example, how does food function as a boundary marker of identity? You will be graded on the thoroughness and intelligence with which you grapple with issues at hand in the text rather than on traditional criteria of a persuasive essay. The essay is due the week the text is discussed.
Food Media Essay– 15%
Students will write a short 2-page review (4 pages for graduate students) on food media (film, television, internet, magazine, newspaper, etc.). Students are encouraged to engage media from suggested lists provided by the professor. You will analyze texts of food performance including food preparation, presentation, consumption, and cleanup to understand and interpret characters and their interactions, the social dynamics explored in the narrative, and the ideological perspectives conveyed. Due February 10.
OR
Art Embodiment Project – 15%
Students will create a food art work. You will create a piece of art that is meaningful to you about how you experience food. Your piece of art can be in any medium, but must be made out of food or represent food to some extent. You must use food in your art so as to reflect embodiment. Include a short 1-page description of what your art means to you and why you chose to create that particular form of art/food synthesis.
Service Learning Project – 15%
Students will take part in a 10-hour volunteer service project dealing with issues of food security and insecurity in Corvallis. Below are three options; however you are welcomed to design your own project. You will be expected to connect your service project to the broader themes of the course through your writings and in-class discussion. A 2-page journal is due on the last week of class.
• Working at Stone Soup at St. Mary's and First Christian Church, a free-meal-assistance program that serves meals to anyone in need on Tuesdays 4:00 - 7:00 pm, Saturday 8:30 - 11:30 am, Sunday 4:00 - 7:00 pm (Contact
• Working a few hours each week with the Linn Benton Food Share in Corvallis; food bank that focuses on healthy food including locally-grown and organic products;
• Working a few hours each week with the Lincoln K-8’s After School Garden Club, a food garden at a local elementary school, which serves low-income families and neighborhoods (Contact Cheryl Good at or 541-757-7334
• Working at SAGE to help grow food for low-income families and learn gardening skills (Contact FMI at 753-9211 );
• Working at OSU Kid Spirit Chef’s in Motion on Saturday mornings helpingchildren learn how to have fun cooking nutritional meals (Contact 737-5437 or )
• Working at Cultural Meal Support Program, planning and preparing recipes provided by students (Contact Student Leadership & Involvement);
• Working at the Corvallis Multicultural Literacy Center’sCooking and Culture classes (Contact754-7225 or );
• Working at the OSU Organic Growers Club Farm who plan the annual HOO HAA on April 22nd (Contact James Cassidy at 737-4507 or , Sunday Skool starts January 9th from 9-12pm);
• Working at the Albany YMCA garden, which donates to local food pantries (Contact Michael Spinello at 541-926-4488 ext.307 or at , , work party on Saturday, 1/15 at 10:00 am-12:00 pm);
• Working for Linn Benton Food Share (LBFS) gleaners who gather excess food left after harvest (Contact gleaning coordinator Susan James at 541-758-2645); or
• Working for Empty Bowls, a global campaign to fight hunger (Contact Melissa Cheyney at 737-3895 or , the event is held in March).
Book Group Discussion – 20%
In a group, you will be responsible for digesting or leading the class discussion on the Tuesday of the week the book is assigned. You should search for available resources related to your book. You can include biographical information, book reviews, film screenings, a cooking demonstration or taste testing (ingredients). It should include a critical reflection on how the production, distribution, preparation, consumption, and/or representation creates, reinforces, or challenges structures of power among a specific ethnic group. Prepare at least five (5) questions based on the readings that will guide the discussion. Provide the class with copies of your discussion questions at least one class session prior to the class. The format for discussion is open (i.e., debate, fishbowl, jigsaw, posted dialogues, think-pair-share, role-play).
Final Project/Paper – 30%
Students will write a 10-15 page (15-20 pages for graduate students) paper on a topic chosen in consultation with the professor. The topic should be related to the course, or a theoretical discussion, or synthesis of some of the analytical readings we have covered. Projects include a typical research paper, an exploration of a particular cuisine or restaurant, or some such topic. Projects that address a “real world” problem in food or service learning projects are welcomed. Such opportunities may include edible estates and school lunch programs. You are expected to use at least five scholarly references. Consult the APA style manual for citations. You may use newspapers, popular magazines, cookbooks, trade publications, films, surveys, pamphlets, labels, etc. We will reserve the final class for student presentations or summary of these projects.
A 1-2 page written proposal for your final paper is due January 27. It should include topic and title, rationale, how you see your key research question(s) at this stage, tentative outline, and preliminary references (at least five references beyond required readings on the course syllabus).
Students with Disabilities
“Accommodations are collaborative efforts between students, faculty and Disability Access Services (DAS). Students with accommodations approved through DAS are responsible for contacting the faculty member in charge of the course prior to or during the first week of the term to discuss accommodations. Students who believe they are eligible for accommodations but who have not yet obtained approval through DAS should contact DAS immediately at 737-4098.”
Course Protocol
Please do not disrupt the class in any way. No racist, sexist, homophobic, or bigoted remarks will be tolerated. Sensitivity and mutual respect for difference is essential. This also includes not using electronic and wireless devices such as cell phones, laptops, etc.
Statement of Expectations for Student Conduct
To fully understand student conduct expectations, please visit this link:
Course Menu
Week 1Introduction: Something to chew on
T, 1/4
R, 1/6Kalčik, S. Ethnic foodways in America: Symbol and the performance of identity
Negra, Diane. Ethnic food fetishism, whiteness, and nostalgia in recent film and television.
Tuchman, Gaye & Levine, Harry G. New York Jews and Chinese food: The Social construction of an ethnic pattern.
Ray, Krishnendu. Gastroethnicity: Reorienting ethnic studies.
Belasco, Warren. Ethnic fast foods: The Corporate melting pot.
Films: What’s cooking, Take out
Week 2Happy meals
T, 1/11Heldke, L. Let's cook Thai: Recipes for colonialism
Long, L. Culinary tourism: A Folkloristic perspective on eating and otherness
Narayan, U. Eating cultures: Incorporation, identity and Indian food
R, 1/13Alkon, Alison Hope. Growing resistance: Food, Culture and the Mo’ Better Foods Farmers’
Market.
Raja, Ma & Yadav. Beyond food deserts: Measuring and mapping racial disparities in neighborhood food environments
Austin, R. Super size me and the conundrum of race/ethnicity, gender and class for the contemporary law-genre documentary filmmaker
Film: Unnatural causes, Super size me, Hunger in America, Obese city: The Painful truth
Week 3History
T, 1/18Voices in the kitchen Group Presentation
R, 1/20Pilcher, Jeffrey. Eating Mexican in a global age: The Politics and production of ethnic food.
Barraclough, L. R. South Central farmers and Shadow Hills homeowners: Land use policy and relational racialization in Los Angeles.
Film: Deconstructing Supper, Fast food nation, The Garden
Week 4
T, 1/25The Fortune Cookie Chronicles Group Presentation
R, 1/27Miller, Hanna. Identity takeout: How American Jews made Chinese food their ethnic cuisine.
Roberts, J.A.G. On the globalization of Chinese food.
Proposal due
Week 5
T, 2/1All our relationsGroup Presentation
R, 2/3LaDuke, Winona. Ricekeepers. A Struggle to biodiversity and a Native American way of
life.
LaDuke, Winona. Food as medicine.
LaDuke, Winona. From Resistance to regeneration.
LaDuke, Winona. A Society based on conquest cannot be sustained.
Film: Corn is Who We Are: Pueblo Indian Food, As Long as the Rivers Run
Week 6
T, 2/8Stealing Buddha’s dinner Group Presentation
R, 2/10Speaker
Media Essay due
Week 7
T, 2/15Interpreter of maladies Group Presentation
R, 2/17Speaker
2/19-21Food and Justice Conference at UO
Week 8
T, 2/22Building houses out of chicken legs Group Presentation
Black History Month Dinner
R, 2/24Speaker
Week 9
T, 3/1Sistah vegan Group Presentation
R, 3/3Poe, Tracy. The Origins of soul food.
Rouse, Carolyn & Janet Hoskins. Purity, Soul Food and Sunni Islam.
Adams, Carol J. Anthropornography.
Week 10Conclusion and potluck
T, 3/8 Student Research Presentations
R, 3/10Student Research Presentations
Class cookbook
M, 3/14Final Project due in professor’s mailbox in 230 Strand Ag Hall by 5pm
1