HIST 4336 - [Food, Identity, and Politics in the United States]

(crosslisted) AMST 4336, FGSS 4336
(HA-AS, HST-AS, SCD-AS)

Fall. Not offered: 2021-2022. Next offered: 2022-2023. 4 credits. Letter grades only.

Co-meets with AMST 6336/HIST 6336.

S. Vider.

In this seminar, we will explore how eating and cooking have historically shaped and reflected broader patterns of identity and belonging in the United States. How have food and foodways been mobilized in constructions of national, regional, ethnic, and racial heritage, as well as gender and sexual identity? How have cooking and eating patterns for various groups been transformed by migration and immigration? How have spaces of consumption operated as sites of kinship, care, community, assimilation, and resistance? We will also consider how food and foodways operate as sites of memory—embodied modes of cultural transmission and historical knowledge. Students will read and analyze historical scholarship on U.S. food and foodways and apply theoretical readings to interpret a wide range of texts, including cookbooks, menus, and memoirs, culminating in a final research paper and a draft of a digital exhibition. (HNA)