Graduate Minor in Food Studies

Food Studies Minor

The graduate minor in food studies enables graduate students in anthropology or other programs to develop a specialization in food studies within their graduate program.  The food studies specialization comprises an interdisciplinary field that cuts across the arts, humanities, and sciences. Because food production, distribution, and consumption lie at the core of human existence, anthropologists have focused on the complex, dynamic, and integral relationship between food and culture. Food sustains us biologically; as well it gives meaning, order, and values to our lives. Food also plays important roles in our identity construction, religious practices and socialization. At the same time, agricultural changes, development, migration, globalization, technological changes, and advertising, among a number of other factors, now transform the way that we produce, distribute, prepare, and consume the food that we eat. Within this minor, students will have the opportunity to explore and develop specialized knowledge about food and culture through graduate training. Students will be expected to use the ideas, insights, and knowledge gained through graduate seminars in their fieldwork for the M.A. thesis or internship in a food studies topic approved by their M.A. committee.
In order to complete the minor requirements, students are required to complete 9 credit hours (3 classes) of graduate level courses. The core courses for the minor are ANTH 520, ANTH 531, ANTH 536, ANTH 538, and ANTH 539. Alternative classes are identified below the core offerings; these may be substituted with the approval of the student’s M.A. thesis chair.