If someone tells you how to be healthy or what you should or shouldn’t eat, do you believe them? Why or why not? How do dietary “experts” establish their expertise? What makes some people/arguments more convincing than others? Is any dietary advice ever truly “right”? What happens during the process of translating nutrition and diet research into everyday action? How have ideas about healthy diets and healthy bodies changed over time? This course uses the long history of diet and health to investigate the relationship between popular understandings of health and the idea of expertise.
Even if you have never thought about the history of medicine or diet or health, or have never taken a history course, or even a humanities course, YOU ARE WELCOME HERE! I assume you have no prior knowledge or skills necessary for class, so we build from the ground up.
I will do everything I can to help you learn as much as you’re motivated to learn, and to help you get whatever grade you’re aiming for. As much as possible I’ve tried to make the course about everyone thinking together rather than just you learning “facts” that you can regurgitate later. If you feel the course structure isn’t facilitating your own success, please let me know what would!
The course syllabus is this page and the schedule page. These two pages have everything you need to know about the course. It is YOUR RESPONSIBILITY to know what’s on the syllabus and follow directions.
All assignments will be submitted and graded via Canvas.
All course videos are available on YouTube, and links to videos will be posted on the syllabus as they become available. I don’t send out notifications about videos, they just appear on the syllabus before you need them.
There are NO REQUIRED BOOKS OR READERS for the course; everything is accessible online. LITERALLY EVERYTHING you need for the course is either already available online (and linked to on the syllabus), or is a PDF in our Zotero library as described below. You never need to find anything on your own!
We use a tool called Zotero to organize and provide access to all readings for the course. To get connected, carefully follow the getting started guide. If it doesn’t work for you, follow the directions more carefully. They work.
diet-health-expertise-unm (in case you try to look it up on zotero.org, but you shouldn’t need to.)Anyone can see the list of readings in the Zotero library. But you can only access the PDFs if you have requested access to the course group and logged into Zotero. Just follow the directions!
Most weeks (and some sub-week units) have a short overview video that highlights a few “big points” that I hope you’ll keep in mind as you make your way through the readings. These are important to mention in your reading reflections.
Some days (or set of days) have their own short “big points” video to call attention to big picture ideas that might get lost in the details of the readings. These are important to mention in your reading reflections.
Most days you’ll have something to read or watch, and you’ll need to show me you put some effort into that via a short assignment. Some days you have a longer more synthetic assignment in place of the standard reflection.
The readings can be dense and sometimes it’s hard to identify what’s really important. That’s one of the core skills you’re developing in this course! So, in trying to evaluate your engagement with them, I’m always looking for familiarity over mastery. Knowing what’s in the readings and what they are trying to do, is FAR more important than feeling like you completely get it. Tell me where you are on that spectrum. Skim the readings, read certain parts carefully, form an opinion, and write a quick reflection.
All assignments are DUE BY MIDNIGHT on the day they are listed on the syllabus (unless otherwise stated). Honestly, turning them in an hour late doesn’t matter, but don’t post them after breakfast the next day.
You have TWO DAYS after the due date to turn in the assignment, although there is a one grade late penalty each day. Then the assignment is closed. I don’t want to sound too strict, but I’ve found that having no deadlines encourages well-meaning students (who want to turn in their best work) to get into a deep hole of missing work, and the course simply moves too fast to recover.
Assignments will appear in Canvas as letter grades. Some assignments count more heavily behind the scenes because they ask for more synthesis, more sources, or more end-of-course reflection, but I want you thinking mainly in terms of the quality of the work: A, B, or C.
Note that the whole scale is a little “easier” than the “standard” grading scale, to automatically make up any assignments you feel got graded a bit harshly.
If you feel like you’re always getting graded lower than what you expected, we have a calibration issue to resolve, so please reach out so we can resolve it. If you have one assignment that you worked hard at and are proud of, but got a low grade, there was a mistake or miscommunication. Please reach out so we can fix it.
| Percent | Grade |
|---|---|
| 95+ | A+ |
| 90-94 | A |
| 88-89 | A- |
| 85-87 | B+ |
| 82-84 | B |
| 80-81 | B- |
| 77-79 | C+ |
| 72-76 | C |
| 68-71 | C- |
| 62-67 | D+ |
| 56-61 | D |
| 55- | F |
You should be familiar with UNM’s Policy on Academic Dishonesty and the Student Code of Conduct which outline academic misconduct defined as plagiarism, cheating, fabrication, or facilitating any such act.
UNM is committed to providing courses that are inclusive and accessible for all participants. As your instructor, it is my objective to facilitate an accessible education experience, in which students have full access and opportunity. If you are experiencing technical or academic barriers, or concerns related to mental or physical health, please consult with me. You are also encouraged to contact Accessibility Resource Center at arcsrvs@unm.edu or by phone 277-3506.