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.