Schedule of Readings & Assignments

1: Aug 19 + 21

Our task for this week is to make sure we’re all on the same page about how the course is structured and general expectations.

Aug 19: Course introductions

Aug 21: Challenges and Rewards of Food + History

2: Aug 26 + 28

Aug 26: American Food

The goal for today is to complicate the idea of “American” food. There are an unusually high number of readings for today, but they are all quite short and offer unique perspectives that are worth thinking about together.

Aug 28: National Cuisines

Today we’ll broaden out our discussion of American food to discuss national cuisine generally.

3: Sep 2 + 4

Almost everyone thinks about whether some kind of food or dish is “authentic” from time to time. But what does that really mean? The few readings for today should help us think more carefully notions of authenticity—particularly how it’s paradoxically an entirely superficial way of describing food, but still a very powerful one.

Sep 2: Authenticity I

Sep 4: Authenticity II

4: Sep 9 + 11

Sep 9: Cuisines of Contact

Sep 11: More Corn

5: Sep 16 + 18

Sep 16: Early America, Food, and Households

Sep 18:

6: Sept 23 + 25

Sep 23: Expansion and Immigration

Sep 25: Restaurants as Agents of Change

7: Sep 30 + Oct 2

Sep 30: History from Cookbooks

Oct 2: Using Cookbooks

Some cookbooks mentioned in the readings

8: Fall Break

Oct 7: Cookbook Comparison Workshop

Today we’re talking about the comparison you’re doing for your assignment. If you want a higher grade, you should come talk about the assignment. If you don’t care or have other priorities, have a great break!

Oct 9: FALL BREAK

NO CLASS! Make some good food.

9: Oct 14 + 16

Is anything more American than “health food” and cereal for breakfast?

Oct 14: Improving Nature

Today we look at an interesting early connection between food, health, and technology that still influences our food choices.

Oct 16: Cereal

10: Oct 21 + 23

Building off the theme of how dietary and moral advice are frequently intertwined, today we look at how popularization of nutritional science provided the perfect “objective” rationale for telling the working classes (and especially immigrants) how they should eat. As we’ll see, the goal seems to have been as much as about health as it was to encourage immigrants to be more economically efficient, and therefore “more American”. This topic may seem unique to the early 19th century and immigration, but even in 2025, a healthier body is still often thought of as a “better” body. The health industry is worth a gazillion dollars in part because it’s not just about health!

Oct 21: Nutrition, Economy, and Citizenship

The idea that we should make decisions on what to eat based on a supposedly objective metric of health has been labelled nutritionism—an ISM like catholocism, totalitarianism—an IDEOLOGY of food and how to eat. There is even an official disorder called orthorexia—wanting to eat “right”. This is often presented as a relatively new (last 40 or 50 years at most) phenomenon, but it actually has a LONG. It is striking that considering how much culture is very different now, and nutritional knowledge has advanced considerably since ~1900, the idea that we can assess and measure morality through food, diet, and health has persisted remarkably well.

Oct 23: Scientific Moralization

11: Oct 28 + 30

Industrializing Meat

Oct 28: Beef

Oct 30: Chicken

12: Nov 4 + 6

Nov 4:

Nov 6:

13: Nov 11 + 13

As you are all well aware, the Southwest has a pretty amazing mix of foodways. While we’ve read in general terms about blending of food traditions, this week is we have two primary goals:

Nov 11: Untangling Food in the Southwest

Nov 13: Culinary Borderlands

14: Nov 18 + 20

Nov 18: Culinary Diffusion

We’ve already looked at the intersection of food traditions in the Southwest, and today we look at food moving out of specific regions. We’ve already covered this a little with our reading on Chinese food in the 19th century, but here focus specifically on diffusion as a general concept and how meanings of food get twisted as food moves around geographies and cultures.

Nov 20: Food Blog Analysis

15: Thanksgiving

Just one meeting this week, and we’re going back in time a little to examine the historical construction of Thanksgiving. Lots of ideas for the dinner table!

Nov 25: Thanksgiving

Nov 27: THANKSGIVING!

16: Dec 2 - 4

Dec 2: Culinary Appropriation

I find most culinary appropriation conversations to be unhelpfully superficial. It is pointless:

These are non-debatable facts. What matters for today is how we can learn to think and talk about appropriation in a sufficiently nuanced way that encourages innovation and adaptation in terms of food while simultaneously respecting cultural heritage and meanings.

Dec 4: Course Conclusions

No readings for today, but crucial tips for succeess on your final course reflection due next week!

Dec 12 Finals Due

Your FINAL Learning Reflection—over the WHOLE CLASS—needs to be turned in BY THE END OF TODAY. See the Final Course Reflection Guide. I can’t emphasize enough that this SHOULD NOT BE MERELY A SUMMARY of what we’ve covered. Instead, as the instructions explain in more detail, illustrate how your thinking about food has changed over the month, and how your submitted work justifies what you think should be your overall grade for the course.