Food Studies
Overview
Food studies is a burgeoning, interdisciplinary, inherently politicized field of scholarship, practice, and art that examines the relationship between food and all aspects of the human experience, including culture and biology, individuals and society, global pathways and local contexts.
The minor invites the growing number of students interested in food to advance their research and classroom studies of complex food related issues across a broad range of curricula. The program provides a curricular offering and intellectual framework to complement the co-curricular energy around food on campus, increasing the rigor and discipline with which students use food as a lens for exploration and critical thinking.
With exposure to interdisciplinary resources across the breadth of liberal arts, students will learn to:
- Understand the complex contemporary and historical factors that affect food production and consumption as well as human physiological dietary needs.
- Consider food system options, comparing their environmental, sociocultural, economic, and health impacts.
- Think critically about food and agricultural challenges and recommendations.
- Develop ideas about how they can contribute to food system solutions and explore multiple pathways to transformation.
Requirements
Minor
Students must complete 20 units of food-related courses. Courses must be taken from a minimum of two different departments. At least three courses applied to the food studies minor must be taken outside the student’s major program.
Students must complete at least one course from the following:
Electives
In addition to the courses listed above, students may select courses from the list below:
| COGS 280 | Food, Drugs, Sex, and the Brain | 4 |
| DWA 283 | Soft Power: How Nations Interact Without War | 4 units |
| HIST 346 | The Transformation of Urban and Rural China | 4 units |
| HIST 358/LLAS 358 | Food and Drink in Mexican History | 4 units |
| KINE 210 | Nutrition and Homeostasis | 4 units |
| KINE 298 | Community Health and Fitness Research | 2 units |
| KINE 306 | Biochemistry of Exercise and Energy | 4 units |
| KINE 398 | Community Health and Fitness Research | 2 units |
| PHIL 395 | Philosophy Seminar | 4 units |
| PSYC 420 | Psychology of Addiction | 4 units |
| RELS 205 | Holy Sh*t!: Engaging the Materiality of Religion | 4 units |
| UEP 101 | Environment and Society | 4 units |
| UEP 240 | Urban Sustainability: Raising Animals as a Part of Regenerative Agriculture | 2 units |
| UEP 246 | Sustainable Oxy | 2 units |
| UEP 247 | Sustainable Oxy: Urban Agriculture and Sustainable Landscape Practicum | 2 units |
| UEP 303 | Sustainable Development | 4 units |
| UEP 390/LLAS 390 | Los Angeles and the Global Food Economy | 4 |
Students may also apply MUSC 385 as an elective for the Food Studies minor if they have enrolled in the "Music and Food" section of the course.
Students may also apply PSYC 490 as an elective for the Food Studies minor if they have enrolled in the "Eating: From Cells to Society" section of the course.
Only select topics of UEP 295 and PHIL 395 have been approved to apply as an elective. See program chair for more information. Students must file the appropriate paperwork with the Registrar's Office in order to apply this course to the minor.
Transfer Credit Policies
Courses approved for transfer by the appropriate department or program will be considered to apply toward the Food Studies minor. Students should reference the Transfer Credit section for details.
Faculty
Carmel Levitan, chair
Professor
B.A., Stanford University; Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley
Other faculty associated with the Food Studies minor can be viewed here.