This course explores how conflicts over food shaped the modern world. We compare shifting interpretations of famine (in Ireland, India, and Ethiopia), and explore how food became a "weapon of war" during the World Wars. Finally, the course analyzes how race, gender, and class shaped American food and welfare policies.
Outcomes: Students will have developed an awareness of the biological, political, social, cultural, and economic meanings of food in modern societies; Students will have gained exposure to different methodological approaches to studying food and hunger (anthropology, economics, sociology, psychology, gender studies etc.); Students will develop skills in analytically interpreting both primary and secondary sources; Students will have engaged in independent research with both primary and secondary sources to complete a historical research project; Students will understand how race and gender have shaped and been shaped by the modern food system.
Outcomes: Students will have developed an awareness of the biological, political, social, cultural, and economic meanings of food in modern societies; Students will have gained exposure to different methodological approaches to studying food and hunger (anthropology, economics, sociology, psychology, gender studies etc.); Students will develop skills in analytically interpreting both primary and secondary sources; Students will have engaged in independent research with both primary and secondary sources to complete a historical research project; Students will understand how race and gender have shaped and been shaped by the modern food system.