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Food, Culture and Globalization:London (2 Credit)

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Food, Culture and Globalization:London (2 Credit) Food, Culture and Globalization:London (2 credit) NYU London: Fall 2018 Instructor Information ● Dr Rodney J Reynolds ● Reynolds (+44 (0)7941573609 – WhatsApp or text) ● Instructor office hours (TBD & By appointment) ● Office location (NYUL Campus, 4 – 6 Bedford Square) ● Reynolds ([email protected]) Course Information ● Mondays (9am – 10.15am) and 3 Fridays (21 & 28 September, 7 December) ● NYU London Campus and Academic Center, 4 - 6 Bedford Square London Course Overview and Goals Food, Culture and Globalization, as a course in new sensory urbanism, seeks to expand the traditional scope and range of the studied senses from sight (e.g. art, architecture) and sound (music), to smell, taste and touch, so as to rethink what it means to be a modern urban subject engaged in the pleasures and powers of consumption. Historically, the natural sciences and the arts have engaged more fully with aural and visual senses, while tending to ignore more ostensibly subjective experiences of taste, smell and touch; yet the latter are experientially rich and evocative. This course engages with the gap and the connection between everyday sensory experience and expert knowledge. Through lectures, readings and field trips, students will master established facts and concepts about contemporary urban food cultures and produce new knowledge of the same. This two credit course will meet weekly (except for the last week of October and the first week of November) for a total of 20 hours across the semester between 3 September 2018 and 7 December 2018. Teaching will include a mix of classroom instruction and co-curricular tasks and trips in the Bloomsbury neighborhood of London, which surrounds the NYU London campus. In this course, we will explore current transformations in the food systems and cultures of London under conditions of globalization. Specifically, through lectures and assignments, we will ask how produce, people and animals have interacted to make life possible in Page 1 modern London and in cities more broadly. We question how those interactions have changed over time. We also consider the built environment and the kinds of systems that have been built to provide energy, potable water, provide clean air and process waste. Course goals: 1. Identify key aspects of the food systems and cultures of London, UK. 2. Describe distinctive aspects of urban life, culture, and media in London. 3. Apply theoretical concepts of systems thinking, cultural analysis, urban studies, sociology, anthropology and food studies to the examination of London. 4. Analyze concepts of public space and private places in the British contexts and the role edibles play in those contexts (such as cafes, street corners, restaurants, vending carts, neighborhoods, etc.). 5. Analyze demographic and market data about produce, people, and identity. 6. Describe and apply conceptions of class, race, ethnicity and gender to questions of commensality and hierarchy. 7. Support the development of research and problem solving skills through course assignments and assessment. Upon Completion of this Course, students will be able to: ● Describe distinctive aspects of London’s urban life and culture through key aspects of the city’s built environment, food systems and foodways ● Identify and apply key intersectional concepts to London’s food systems and foodways in historical, contemporary and future contexts ● Demonstrate research and problem solving skills through completion of course assignments and assessment Course Requirements Grading of Assignments The grade for this course will be determined according to these assessment components: Assignments/ % of Final Description of Assignment Due Activities Grade Throughout I expect you to contribute to the class the course. Class participation/ through your comments, ideas and 15% One point Attendance attendance. per session equivalent In pairs, conduct oral history interviews Oral History with London senior citizens to learn about Oral History 28 their experiences with and recollections of 15% September the city food system. You will be given key topics that you are expected to explore in Partners’ Oral History your interview by developing your own Oral History Oral History questions. Interviews will last about 45 Write-up Write-up minutes. 15% December 7, 2018 Each partnership will summarize the interview and raise points that they Page 2 Assignments/ % of Final Description of Assignment Due Activities Grade understand as salient in a 2000 word paper due on the last day of class. With your partner, write a short (1000 words) sensory description of a food outlet in Bloomsbury from the viewpoint of food practices making links across geographies, history and events. What connections do the observations that you have made have to the food being served? Due Following the approach utilized by Dan Menu task Analyze Menus November Jurafsky in “How to Read a Menu” found in 15% 19, 2018 his book The Language of Food: A Linguist Reads the Menu, which will be given to you in class, with your partner, you are to collect and interpret two contrasting menus found at locales in Bloomsbury for a) status b) language use c) prices d) national identifications e) sensory identifiers in a 1000 word paper. The final assessment is a group project. There will be 5 groups of 2 people (this could change based on enrollment). Each group will have 25 total minutes for their presentation. The presentation activities will consist of a video up to 5 minutes in length; ten minutes to present a key finding from the oral history, food biography or menu analysis; ten minutes to respond to questions. For the group presentation, each group member will Group Final Assessment receive the same grade. Presentation December 7, (30%) Group Project The group task will be to produce a video 2018 Presentation that analyzes and addresses the problem: Individual “what will it mean to be an urban subject in Reflection London 50 years in the future taking into 10% account foodways, food systems and the built environment?” Each individual group member should then write a 500 word reflection of her or his learning about the issues raised by the group task. All of the work that you have done over the course should be compiled into a single Page 3 Assignments/ % of Final Description of Assignment Due Activities Grade electronic folio. It will include your written work as well as your reflections Failure to submit or fulfill any required course component results in failure of the class Grades Letter grades for the entire course will be assigned as follows: Letter Percent Description Grade A Example: 93.5% and higher [Enter expectations for A] B Example: 82.5% - 87.49% [Enter expectations for B] C Example: 72.5% - 77.49% [Enter expectations for C] D Example: 62.5% - 67.49 [Enter expectations for an D] F Example: 59.99% and lower [Enter description of failing work] Course Materials Required Textbooks & Materials ● Links to electronic versions of learning materials will be provided where possible. Hard copies of readings or other materials will be provided to you in advance of lectures as appropriate. Optional Textbooks & Materials ● Bibliographies and links to optional learning materials will be provided as part of the description of each week’s lecture. Some general sources that are relevant to the course are: ● Caplan, Pat (2005). “Approaches to the study of food, health and identity”. In: P. Caplan, ed., (2005), Food, Health and Identity. London: Routledge, Pp. 1 – 31. ● Ingleby, Matthew (2017). Bloomsbury: Beyond the Establishment. London: The British Library. ● Pilcher, Jeffrey (ed)(2012). The Oxford Handbook of Food History. Oxford University Press ● Steel, Carolyn (2006). Hungry City: How Food Shapes our Lives. London: Vintage Books. Page 4 ● Spence, Charles (2017). Gastrophysics: The New Science of Eating. New York: Viking. ● Sutton, David E. (2010). Food and the Senses, Annual Review of Anthropology, vol. 39:209-223. ● Gastropod Podcast available through any podcast aggregator ● London.eater.com Resources ● Access your course materials: NYU Classes (nyu.edu/its/classes) ● Databases, journal articles, and more: Bobst Library (library.nyu.edu) ● NYUL Library Collection: Senate House Library (catalogue.libraries.london.ac.uk) ● Assistance with strengthening your writing: NYU Writing Center (nyu.mywconline.com) ● Obtain 24/7 technology assistance: IT Help Desk (nyu.edu/it/servicedesk) Course Schedule Session Learning Assignment Topic Lecturer Date Resources Due Introduction and Overview No specific reading though Session 1: Description: Reynolds any of the 3 September Overview and introduction optional (Monday) N/A to the course, to one learning 9am – another, to the instructor resources 10:15am and to the learning would be materials and activities. relevant Making a City: The Reynolds Chapter 2 of Powers and Pleasures Steel is of Consumption required. The other materials Description: are optional Analyzing London as a marketplace we pick up Steel, Carolyn Session 2: the theme of globalization (2006). Hungry 10 September and the circulation of food City: How (Monday) N/A commodities and the Food Shapes 9am – impact this change in our Lives. 10:15am world commerce enabled London: for the senses, the growth Vintage Books. of urban environments, Chapter 2 social relationships and “Supplying the geographies of food City” and production and Chapter 3 consumption. “Market and Supermarket” Page 5 Session Learning Assignment Topic Lecturer Date Resources Due Learning Objectives: 1. To analyze
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