51³ÉÈËÁÔÆæ

Course Description

Summary

Food, place and politics. This course investigates food in the globalized world considering political economy, history of colonialism and cultural identity. Focusing on various geographical locales, we examine the economic factors, socio-political structures and cultural implications behind what determines a crop’s value based on power relationships and global trade strategies. The class investigates how the cultivation of commodity food crops, such as corn and tropical fruits, have reshaped landscapes from the era of early colonization by the Europeans and the ways that the subsequent establishment of the globalized industrialized food systems have affected environments, national sovereignty, labor, economic and human rights, cultural heritage and identity. This is a research-based course which incorporates transdisciplinary approaches, including visual arts methodologies (drawing sculpture, photography, performance, video) to render diagrams and create maps to visualize the intricacies and obscure relationships that are found in contemporary foodscapes.