American Food Stories

We’ve talked a little about the absence and fragility of historical archives about what people actually ate. It can be hard to know! We’ve also read about community archives and community cookbooks, and how they preserve traditions, culture, and heritage that makes the diversity of American food so unique. So let’s make life easier for future food historians!

Why we’re doing this

• Consider the nature of food archives
• Document “everyday” food history
• Gain basic experience with oral history creation and archiving
• Participate and reflect on a collaborative public history project

What you will do

• Record ~6 minutes of someone or yourself discussing a dish or food tradition or experience. The topic doesn’t really matter as long as it’s meaningful to the speaker
• Use basic sound editing software to clean up the recording (this takes about 30-45 minutes even if it’s your first time.)
• Create a ~50 word introduction to your speaker to help contextualize them and the story
• Write up a ~500-word analysis of the story based on course themes to “read between the lines”
• Use/take a photo or use AI to generate some goofy image related to your food topic
• Create a simple webpage to present your speaker bio, image, and interview clip
• YOU WILL HAVE DETAILED INSTRUCTIONS FOR EVERY STEP

Questions to keep in mind for your analysis

• How does the story related to identity, gender, community, authenticity, heritage, etc?
• What kind of larger themes appear (exotic, health, comfort, economy, speed, etc)?
• What kind of assumptions can you detect about cooking/cuisine/food?
• Are there various “national” or “ethnic” influences?
• How much does tradition or originality or authenticity matter?
• REMEMBER: You’re READING BETWEEN THE LINES to tell your readers/listeners about American culture and cuisine.

Questions

Coursework is frustrating and virtually impossible to do well when you’re not sure what to do or how to do it. Please reach out if something’s not clear!