AMS 55 FOOD IN AMERICAN CULTURE Spring 2015 Tues / Thurs 3:10 – 4:30 Storer 1322

Professor Charlotte Biltekoff cbiltekoff@ucdavis.edu

OH: Tuesdays 12:45 – 2:45pm 2210 RMI South

OVERVIEW This course is about why we eat what, and how, we do. Together we will ask a lot of questions about American eating habits: Why is it so important for families and communities to come together at the table? Is cooking an expression of creativity and power for women, or a sign of their oppression? Are we really what we eat? Should we love or loathe convenience foods? What kind of role should responsibility play in our choices about what to eat? What should the future of food look like? We will use many disciplines (history, sociology, anthropology, consumer research) and analyze many different kinds of texts (images, TV shows, films, newspaper articles). The goals of this course are for students to… • Learn a basic vocabulary and set of concepts for analyzing American eating habits. • Understand the three main influences on American eating habits (identity,

convenience and responsibility) and the tensions that arise between them. • Learn about some of the central debates that shape current thinking about food in

American culture and practice articulating their own informed opinions on those debates.

• Practice writing and discussion as a way of refining critical thinking about these matters.

Please read this document carefully. This syllabus is considered a contract. By choosing to take this class you are agreeing to abide by the expectations and policies stated here.

REQUIREMENTS & EXPECTATIONS You are required to attend lecture and discussion sections, read all assigned texts, contribute to discussions, and complete all written assignments on time. Lectures: Lectures will assume that you have completed and reflected on the assigned reading. I will talk for part of the time, but I will also want to have conversations with you at some point during each class so come prepared to share your (informed) ideas and opinions about the ideas raised in the reading. We will write during class and discuss ideas in small groups or pairs. We will also view and discuss images, film and TV clips, music, and podcasts. PowerPoint slides will be posted to smartsite each morning before class. Keep this in mind as you take notes during lectures.

Lecture Conduct: I expect you all to be considerate, respectful members of this class: • Do not talk to each other while I am talking or while your classmates are talking. • Do not use cell phones and other gadgets during class. • You may use a laptop to take notes in class but only in the last two rows of the

classroom where your screen will not distract other members of the class. (See me if for some reason you need to use a laptop in the front of the room.)

Discussion Sections: Discussion sections are mandatory. They are the primary place where you can make sense of the readings in this course, articulate and discuss your own ideas about the course concepts, and prepare for both written assignments and in-class projects. Your discussion leaders are excellent instructors who will help you to apply what you are learning in lectures and prepare you for success on written assignments. Discussion sections are absolutely integral to this class. You can not succeed without attending them. Under normal circumstances, your work in sections

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counts for 15% percent of your final grade. Please note, however, that failure to attend section regularly can result in failing this course. Your section grade will include both your participation and your performance on unannounced reading quizzes. Assignments: Assignments will be based on lectures, readings, and our discussions during both lectures and discussion sections. You will write three 4-5 page essays for this class. You will also write four informal, 500 word reports (one page single spaced). Detailed instructions for all assignments will be posted to the resource section of our smartsite and discussed in class (at least ten days before due dates for paper assignments). Printed handouts will be provided for the syllabus only. The syllabus will also be available on smartsite. “Experiments” and Reports The world is your lab for this class, and throughout the quarter you will be asked to conduct “experiments,” reflect on them in writing, and discuss them in class. Each experiment, more like an experience, will prepare you for a more formal writing assignment. Your reports, or reflections on your experiment, will be due in section where they will be discussed and evaluated in peer-to-peer feedback sessions (The reflection for the final paper will be written during section). These are informal writing assignments so what matters is the extent to which the author has reflected thoughtfully on the topic provided. (They must be clearly written enough to be understood, but organization and grammar are not the emphasis here.) After the feedback sessions TAs will collect the reports and grade them using a simple pass / not pass system. Papers You will write one short paper (4-5 double spaced pages) for each of the three units of this class. In each case, the goal of the essay will be to refine your thinking and express your ideas in clear, sophisticated, polished prose. All papers are due in class, at the start of class. Your final course grade will be comprised of the following components:

15% Section Contribution & Unannounced Reading Quizzes 20% 4 Experiments (5% percent each) 20% Paper One: Identity 22% Paper Two: Convenience 23% Paper Three: Responsibility

POLICIES

Late Assignments: Experiments: Experiment reports are due in section, at the beginning of your section meeting. They will form the basis of discussion on the day that they are due which, in turn, will help to prepare you for a more formal paper assignment. No late reports will be accepted. Papers: The grade for a late paper will be reduced one whole letter grade for each class meeting it is late. (If a paper is due on Tuesday but handed in on Thursday, it starts out as a B. The following Tuesday, it starts as a C.) You may only submit papers at our class meeting – not in section, in your TA’s mail box or over email. Exceptions to the above will only be made with advanced permission by your TA (send an email before the assignment is due!), or with a written excuse from a doctor, therapist or the UCD Counseling Center (752-0871). Papers are due at the beginning of class. Papers turned in after 3:25 will be considered late and marked down half of a grade point.

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Mailing List: Students should check their UC Davis email accounts regularly. You are responsible for any updates and changes to the syllabus that may be sent over email. Individual Questions: If you have questions about class material or procedures, please attend my office hours, ask me after class, or make an appointment by email. Please refrain from asking questions immediately before class (I am usually preparing for class at these times). Email policy: In recent years, I have noticed a marked increase in student e-mail messages. As a result, I ask you to send me email messages only to make an appointment to meet with me. Please do not send me email messages that ask for clarification of class materials or class procedures (this should be handled during class, office hours or after class), that notify me of your absence from class, or that ask what you missed during an absence (please check with another student). Disability: I encourage students with disabilities including “invisible” disabilities such as chronic diseases, learning disabilities and psychiatric disabilities to notify your TAs so that you can discuss accommodations within the first 2 weeks of class. Academic honesty: The papers for this class are to be completed individually without collaboration, except for editing by a classmate, friend or the Learning Skills Center. Dishonesty (cheating, plagiarism, and collusion) will be reported and an F given to the offending assignment. Plagiarism is defined as copying information from someone else and passing it off as your own work (including from a website). Collusion is unauthorized collaboration with another person in preparing your work.

COURSE TEXTS • Warren Belasco, Food: The Key Concepts (available at the campus bookstore) • All other course readings are available through smartsite

SCHEDULE Tuesday 3.31 Introduction Thursday 4.2 Bugs For Breakfast Bugs For Breakfast: What is food? What is food studies?

Belasco, 1 and 2: “Why Study Food?” and “Identity: Are We What We Eat?” Girardi, “Spaghetti”

IDENTITY Tuesday 4.7 Community and Hierarchy Sections: Experiment Due (Madeleine)

Humphrey, “Soup Night: Community Creation Through Foodways” Yarbrough, “Grandma’s Table”

Thursday 4.9 Manners and Rituals

Visser, “How Rude Are We?” Cook, Social Etiquette: Manners and Customs of Polite Society (skim excerpt)

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Tuesday 4.14 Gender and the Family Belasco, 3: “The Drama Of Food: Divided Identities” Beoku-Betts, “’We Got Our Way of Cooking Things’: Women, Food and Preservation of Cultural Identity Among the Gullah” Wade-Gayles, “’Laying on Hands” Through Cooking’: Black Women’s Majesty and Mystery in their own Kitchens” Piercy, “What’s That Smell in the Kitchen”

Thursday 4.16 Many Meals, Family Meals

Swenson, “Domestic Divo? Televised Treatments of Masculinity, Femininity, and Food”

Tuesday 4.21 Ethnicity and Authenticity Sections: Experiment Due (Interview)

Manalansan, “Beyond Authenticity: Rerouting the Filipino Culinary Diaspora” Johnston and Baumann, “Eating Authenticity”

Thursday 4.23 Culinary Tourism and Colonialism Bentley, “From Culinary Other to Mainstream American: The Meaning and Uses of Southwestern Cuisine” Anthony Bourdain, “Under the Volcano”

CONVENIENCE Tuesday 4.28 No Class - sections will meet this week Thursday 4.30 Making of the Modern Food System and Modern Food Consumers Paper #1 Due

Belasco, 4: “Convenience: The Global Food Chain” 55-67 only Hine, “The Grocer Couldn’t Help It”

Tuesday 5.5 Meaning and Power in the Industrial Food System Sections: Experiment Due (Experiencing Convenience)

Belasco, 4: “Convenience: The Global Food Chain” 67-78 only (“Inside Gigantic”) Guptill et al., “Branding and Marketing: Governing the Sovereign Consumer”

Thursday 5.7 Social Trends / Product Trends

Peterson, “Bringing up Baby (Carrots)” Strom, “Has Organic Been Oversized” “Food Culture Year in Review: Food Culture 2014” (follow links that interest you)

Tuesday 5.12 Food Product Development, Ron Rentell, President, Consumer Eyes Sections: Experiment Due (Contextualizing Convenience)

Jackson, “Grab and Go: A Restless Nation Tanks Up” “Is the Era of Big Food Coming to an End?”

Thursday 5.14 The Processed Foods Controversy

Lauden, “A Plea for Culinary Modernism” “Ramen to the Rescue: How instant Noodles Fight Global Hunger”

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RESPONSIBILITY, HEALTH AND THE FUTURE OF FOOD Tuesday 5.19 Food Anxieties and Scares

Belasco, 5: “Responsibility, Who Pays for Dinner” News:

• “Taking On the Food Industry, One Blog Post at a Time” • “‘Yoga mat’ chemical azodicarbonamide found in nearly 500 grocery store

food items” • “Poll: Three-Quarters of Americans Want More Government Food Safety

Oversight” Thursday 5.21 Labor in the Convenience Food System Paper #2 Due today OR 5.26 “Hands that feed us Executive Summary” Brown and Getz, “Farmworker Insecurity” News:

• “For $1 per Big Mac, a truly livable salary for millions” (editorial) • “'Managers Told Me To Put Mustard On It': Fast-Food Workers Say Burns

Are Rampant, File OSHA Complaints” Tuesday 5.26 Urban Farming and the Future of School Lunch Sections: Prepare For Debate On Future Of Food (Review Belasco 113-123 Before Section) Paper #2 Due today if not turned in on 5.21 News:

• “If urban farming took off, what would Boston look like?” • “Here’s One Way to Improve School Lunches” • “No Appetite for Good-for-You School Lunches” • “Lunch on the barricades” (opinion)

Thursday 5.28 Future of Food with Bruce German Belasco, Chapter 6: “The Future of Food” News:

• “Lab-grown beef taste test: ‘Almost’ like a burger” • “Green food: Silicon Valley gets a taste for food” • “Will Soylent Solve our Food Problem” (opinion)

Tuesday 6.2 Obesity: Framing Contests Popenoe, “Ideal” Campos et al., “Epidemiology of Overweight”

News: • “Ban on fast-food eateries in South L.A. hasn't cut obesity, study says” • “To many, fat stigma makes obesity smell foul” • “Our Absurd Fear of Fat” (op-ed)

Thursday 6.4 Future of Food Debate 6.10 Papers due via smartsite by 12:30pm (final exam date and time)