AFRS 283 - Food Cultures of the Diasporas

Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)

(Same as ANTH 283) This course focuses on foods and foodways of diasporas in the United States. We examine culinary practices to think about how diasporas are lived, experienced, imagined, and reproduced. We explore such questions as: What global and local networks enable the making of diasporic foodways? What ideas about taste and experience do chefs, food markets, restaurant owners, and everyday people reflect, curate, and cultivate in the production, distribution, and consumption of foods that are associated with a homeland or a diasporic group? What social, environmental, economic, and other factors enable the production of diasporic food? What role does food play in shaping a sense of belonging and connection to a particular place and social group? Through reading, interactive assignments, and conversations, students explore how food cultures of diasporas are sustained and transformed, and how foods get converted into symbols and sources of social identification. As students are introduced to anthropological concepts, the ethics of research, and ethnographic methods, they explore food diasporas in Poughkeepsie and beyond. **This course involves students in using research methods, such as participant observation, interviews, and informal conversations (sometimes with strangers) about food. Candice Lowe Swift.

Two 75-minute periods.

Course Format: CLS