SOC 242 - Sociology of Food and Eating

As human beings, we need food to survive. However, how we acquire, prepare, and eat our food is distinctly social. This makes food an especially interesting and important topic for sociologists. This course will explore the extent to which our tastes and preferences for certain foods (and aversions for others) are the unique properties of individuals, and the extent to which they are socially structured. In addition, we will investigate how our food preferences can create and reaffirm social boundaries. Our food choices may seem trivial, but our everyday activities, such as eating, reflect existing in equalities. An exploration of food and eating also allows insight into social phenomena, such as nationalism, the family, race and gender relations, famines, globalization, and institutions. In this course, we will begin with classical and contemporary theories and then look at food in a global and historical perspective, as well as in contemporary United States.

Credits: 3