Schedule of Readings & Assignments

Nationality of Chocolate

MON

Course introduction; Some philosophical discussion about the nature of diet and health; Historical discussion of premoden diet as described in Galen on Food and Diet.

WED

Brian Cowan, “New Worlds and New Tastes,” 1-17.

FRI

Teresa L. Dillinger, [et al.] “Food for the Gods: cure for humanity? A cultural history of the medicinal and ritual use of chocolate,” Journal of Nutrition 130 (2000): 2057-2072.

Presentations: The history of chocolate according to the internet

Culinary Imperialism

MON

Marcy Norton, “Tasting Empire: Chocolate and the European Internalization of Mesoamerican Aesthetics,” The American Historical Review 111.3 (2006): 660–691.

WED

Woodruff D. Smith, “Complications of the Commonplace; Tea, Sugar, and Imperialism,” Journal of Interdisciplinary History v. 23, Autumn 1992: 259-78.

FRI

T. Bickham, “Eating the Empire: Intersections of Food, Cookery and Imperialism in Eighteenth-century Britain,” Past & Present 198, no. 1 (2008): 71–109.

Presentations: Where do this week’s articles converge and diverge?

Dietary Expertise

MON

Labor Day: No Class!

WED

J. Worth Estes, “The Medical Properties of Food in the Eighteenth Century,” Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences, 51 (1996): 127-149.

FRI

Steven Shapin, “Trusting George Cheyne: Scientific Expertise, Common Sense, and Moral Authority in Early Eighteenth-Century Dietetic Medicine,” Bulletin of the History of Medicine, 77 (2003): 263-297.

Presetations: Analzying early dietary advice, such as George Cheyne, An Essay on Regimen (London, 1740), 53-62.

Balanced & Measured Bodies

MON

Hillel Schwartz, Never Satisfied. A Cultural History of Diets, Fantasies, and Fat, “The Balanced Body,” 75-111.

WED

Never Satisfied, “The Regulated Body,” 113-145.

FRI

Never Satisfied, “The Measured Body,” 147-187.

Presentations: Visual Histories of the Body

American Diet

MON

Harvey Levenstein, Revolution at the Table, 3-97.

WED

Revolution at the Table, 98-146.

FRI

Revolution at the Table, 147-211.

Decide on articles for Monday; get them while you’re on campus!

Accessing Food

MON

Pick and report on one of the articles about availability of healthy food.

40 maps that explain food in America.

Watch the video tutorial on creating maps with Google Maps Engine.

WED

No Class! Gather data for our food access map. Before class on Friday, update our Google Sheet with your food store data.

FRI

Be sure you’ve entered your data on the spreadsheet (see Wednesday)!

Presentations: Mapping Food Access in ABQ.

Rise of Organic Food

MON

David M. Nowacek and Rebecca S. Nowacek, “The Organic Foods System: Its Discursive Achievements and Prospects,” College English 70.4 (2008): 403–20.

WED

Gill Seyfang, “Cultivating Carrots and Community: Local Organic Food and Sustainable Consumption,” Environmental Values 16, no. 1 (February 1, 2007): 105–23.

FRI

Jeffrey Haydu, “Cultural Modeling in Two Eras of U.S. Food Protest: Grahamites (1830s) and Organic Advocates (1960s–70s),” Social Problems 58.3 (2011): 461–87.

Local Diets

MON

Review and presentations of all articles from last week

WED

First 1-page Critiques Due

Play around with food maps.

FRI

Fall Break: No Class!

Critiquing Local Food

MON

Extended Fall Break: No Class!

WED

First half review quiz

Vasile Stănescu, “‘Green’ Eggs and Ham? The Myth of Sustainable Meat and the Danger of the Local,” Journal for Critical Animal Studies 8.1 (2010): 8–32.

FRI

Megan K. Blake, Jody Mellor, and Lucy Crane, “Buying Local Food: Shopping Practices, Place, and Consumption Networks in Defining Food as ‘Local,’” Annals of the Association of American Geographers 100.2 (2010): 409–26.

The Food Pyramid

MON

Marion Nestle, Food Politics, 29-66.

WED

Marion Nestle, Food Politics, 67-93.

FRI

Presentations on online historical accounts of the food pyramid.

Science of Health

MON

Rima D. Apple, “‘They Need It Now’: Science, Advertising and Vitamins, 1925-1940,” Journal of Popular Culture 22.3 (1988): 65–83.

Wilbur O. Atwater, “The Chemistry of Food and Nutrition: The Composition of Our Bodies and Our Food,” Century Illustrated Magazine 34 (May 1887): 59-74.

WED

Catherine Carstairs, “‘Our Sickness Record Is a National Disgrace’: Adelle Davis, Nutritional Determinism, and the Anxious 1970s,” Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences 69.3 (2014): 461–91.

FRI

Michael Moss, The Extraordinary Science of Addictive Junk Food, The New York Times, February 20, 2013.

David S. Ludwig and Mark I. Friedman, Always Hungry? Here’s Why, The New York Times, May 16, 2014.

Marketing Health

MON

Marion Nestle, Food Politics, 219-293.

WED

Marion Nestle, Food Politics, 295-337.

FRI

No Class!

Engineering Food

MON

Mark Tester, “The dangerously polarized debate on genetic modification.” British Food Journal 103.11 (2001): 785-790.

Stephanie Strom, “Major Grocer to Label Foods With Gene-Modified Content,” The New York Times, March 8, 2013.

WED

Alison Shaw, “‘It Just Goes against the Grain’: Public Understandings of Genetically Modified (GM) Food in the UK.” Public Understanding of Science 11.3 (2002): 273-291.

Second 1-page Critiques Due

FRI

No Class!

Understanding Health

MON

Gary Taubes and Cristin Kearns Couzens, Big Sugar’s Sweet Little Lies, Mother Jones, October 2012.

Maddie Oatman, “A Timeline of Sugar Spin,” Mother Jones, October 2012.

WED

David H. Freedman, “How Junk Food Can End Obesity,” The Atlantic, July 2013.

Tom Philpott, Why The Atlantic’s Defense of Junk Food Fails.

FRI

Kevin Voigt, 5 Reasons Why You Need More Fat in Your Diet.

Scientists Fix Errors in Controversial Paper About Saturated Fats,” March 2014.

Defining Food

MON

Michael Pollan, In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto (yes, the whole thing). We will vote to determine whether to have class today or Wednesday.

WED

No Class: Work on your final presentations!

FRI

Thanksgiving: No Class! Eat Well!! (and help in the kitchen)

Final Presentations, etc.

MON

group1, group2, group3

WED

group4, group5, group6

FRI

Conclusions, Evaluations

Third and Final Critiques

2 pages!

Due DECEMBER 10th by 5pm (day of scheduled final exam)