Paideia Editor-in-Chief: Maureen E. Fadem, English The Journal of KCC Reads Section Editors: Volume 2 | Fall 2014 Visuals: Xiaoting Wu, KCC Graphic Designer | KCC Graduate, Class of ‘09 Photography: Paideia is the annual publication of , the Common Farin Kautz | KCC Graduate, Class of ‘12 Reading Program at Kingsborough Community College | CUNY Alan Hawkins | KCC Student Niaz Mosharraf | KCC Graduate, Class of ‘14 Dimitri Foster | KCC Graduate, Class of ‘13 www.kbcc.cuny.edu/kccreads | [email protected] Associate Editors: Jay Bernstein | Library Nicole Colbert | English Kevicha Echols | Health Frances Robinson | Women’s Center Crystal Rodwell | IT Assistant Editors: Zanib Ahmad | KCC Graduate, Class of ‘14 Anna Sacerdote | KCC Student Samantha Sowizdral | KCC Student Jamila Wallace | KCC Student is the annual publication of the common reading program at Kingsborough Community College, CUNY. The journal publishes worK on adopted common reading texts by students of the college. Given that the program’s publication. We consider any worK completed by a student of the college, at any level, as long as it engages the current year’s common reading text in a thoughtful way that contributes meaningfully to the conversation on the book. In the main, worK published in Paideia will have been presented at the annual KCC Reads Annual Student Conference, held each year in the Spring semester and featuring scholarship by hundreds of students in various formats and from multiple disciplinary standpoints. KCC Reads is part of the Coordinated Undergraduate Education Initiative (CUE) at Kingsborough, overseen by Associate Provost Dr. Reza Fakhari (room M-386 | 718-368-5029). KCC READS is part of the Coordinated Undergraduate Education Initiative (CUE) at Kingsoborough, overseen by Associate Provost, Dr. Reza Fakhari. 5 A Workshop Hosted by Students of the KCC Urban 49 Introduction: Mara Gittleman and Silvia Torres, Paideia Farm: “Making Seasonality a Reality” KCC Urban Farm Maya Stansberry, KCC Student The Journal of KCC Reads Ben Hanon, KCC Student Volume 2 | Fall 2014 Honors Students Raise Awareness: Problems of Food 51 Introduction: Helen-Margaret Nasser, KCC Access, Food Awareness and Factory Farming Honors Program Patricia Pjatakova, KCC Students Nancy Bello, KCC Student Sarah Kassin, KCC Student Inaugural Address: Eating Animals 8 Chef Thom Smyth, Director, Culinary Arts 58 Introduction: Michael P. Rodriguez, Director Program Exploration of Eating Animals BMI & The Men’s Resource Center November Student Programs and Fall Address 10 Gene Baur, Co-Founder, Farm Sanctuary Rashidi Ashman, KCC Student Mark Melendez, KCC Student 13 Afternoon Tea: A Fundraiser for the KCC Food Pantry KCC Student Presenters: Jamila Wallace, Anna Sacerdote, Jazmin Preyor and Michelle Rosa- Students of the KCC Reads Cohort Present Varied Views 60 Introduction: Maureen Fadem, KCC Faculty Monge; Caniola Georges (photography) of Eating Animals Edith Flores, KCC Student Jennifer Faybusovich, KCC Student 18 “Eating Animals” Ethically & Andrew Tarlow, Brooklyn Restaurateur A Dialogue on Food Justice and Global Food (In) 64 Introduction: Jason Leggett, KCC Faculty Sustainably, May 5th, 2014 Mike Fadem, Manager of Roman’s security with Prof. Leggett’s Students Moderator, Farin Kautz, KCC Alumnus (Class Schnontasha Dyce, KCC Student of 2012) Lena Ivash, KCC Student Jorge Ramos, KCC Student 22 Jonathan Safran Foer, KCC Reads 2014 Keynote Prof. Freedman’s Students Present on “Carnism” & 67 Introduction: Lisa Freedman, KCC Faculty Speaker and Author of Eating Animals Forgetting in the Context of Eating Animals Ifeoluwa Babalola, KCC Student 2014 Aleksandra Nikolovska, KCC Student (2 publications) 30 Prof. Ricciardi’s Students Explore the Intersection of Paul Ricciardi, KCC Faculty, and his Students Prof. Colbert’s Students Present: The History of Eating 72 Introduction: Nicole Colbert, KCC Faculty Performance & the Activist’s Public Speaking Voice Meat: Daily Practices, Farming & Supermarkets Tianna Welch, KCC Student 32 Introduction: Liza Bruna, KCC Faculty Fernando Gomez, KCC Student Reading Responses to Eating Animals Sobirjon Razikov, KCC Student Tahir Mumtaz , KCC Student Power Point by Sobirjon, Rani, and Fernando Boburjon Olimjonov, KCC Student Joshua Sobers, KCC Student Jenelle Nieuenkirk, KCC Student Prof. Sorel’s Students Present On: Idea into Image; 75 Introduction: Madeline Sorel, KCC Faculty Manuella Sagaille, KCC Student Creating Concepts for KCC Reads Nigora Sharipova, KCC Student Zanib Ahmad, KCC Student Tamar Andate, KCC Student Lavar Wright, KCC Student Julie Zhukova, KCC Student Dina Abdeldaiem, KCC Student 41 Honors Presidential Scholars Present Multiple Views on Introduction: Dr. Rachelle Goldsmith, KCC Jefph Michel, KCC Student Eating Animals Honors Program Kirsey Friedman, KCC Student Pedro Gutierrez, KCC Student Alan Hawkins, KCC Student Nadia Gavrylchenko, KCC Student Sarah Younus, KCC Student Kinza Butt, KCC Student Zarina Dyussenbekova, KCC Student Prof. Fadem’s Students Discuss Their Research into Introduction: Maureen Fadem, KCC Faculty Diverse & Critical Issues in Eating Animals 80 Vladimir Kuvatov, KCC Student A Dialogue on “Animals and Us: Cruelty or 45 Jennifer Radtke, KCC Faculty, and her Students Jazmin Preyor, KCC Student Sustainability?” with Prof. Radtke’s Students Robert Feldman, KCC Student Jamila Wallace, KCC Student 46 Hendrick Ramos, KCC Student Eating Animals: Panel Discussion & Informative Gina Abraham, KCC Student Manuel Luna, KCC Student Speeches with Prof. Schwartz’s Students Erica Figueroa, KCC Student Anna Sacerdote, KCC Student Ekaterina Isayev, KCC Student 2 3 Editor’s Letter: KCC Students Create and Organize a Closing Plenary: 103 Introduction: D.L. Anderson, KCC Faculty, and A Dramatic Performance Inspired by Eating Animals, her Students “The Journey to What Matters” Conference Exhibitions: Art, Agriculture & Video 108 Madeline Sorel, Dept. of Art We must not see any person [animal] as an abstraction. Instead, we must see in Mara Gittleman and Silvia Torres, KCC Urban Farm every person [animal] a universe with its own secrets, with its own treasures, with its own sources of anguish, and with some measure of triumph. ~Elie Wiesel Brian Katz and D.L. Anderson, Dept. of English I was inspired at last year’s Inaugural Address listening to Professor Thom Smyth, Director of KCC Culinary Arts, speak about Eating Animals with much genuineness and poignancy. I had seen Thom, a few weeks earlier, in that well-walked, cross-wise pathway from Features the “M” building to “V.” Heading in opposite directions, we bumped into each other and, forthwith, he gave me “the look” – the look I didn’t know would become the trademark experience for me in our year on Eating Animals. The look that says: “I’ve had to give up my favorite: sushi!” (Dr. Rachelle Goldsmith) “I don’t know what I can eat now!” (Professor Aparajita De) “I’ve gone vegan!” (Professor Liza Bruna) On Culinary two classes—and the looks continued, now from students too. Eating Animals, by Jonathan Safran Foer, was indeed hard on us. And yet, I feel, that was kinda the point. This journal, documenting and representing our common reading program, is called Paideia. As I said in the inaugural issue, it is a Greek word that means deep learning, or the development of wisdom, or, more familiarly perhaps, genuine “critical” thinking. The primary reason Foer’s excellent book produced “the look”—in class, out of class, at events, in hallways, pathways and even restrooms—was because it did exactly that: it forced us to think, long and hard, about something we consider a given most of the time: food. About where our food comes from. And what’s (really) in it. About the ethics of contemporary farming and the question of access to good, real, “whole” foods. Eileen Haber 30 | John Ortiz 32 | Jamel Davis 41 | Shannon Devlin 45 | Frida Benzaken 46 | Robert Graziano 49 | Carolyn Deutsch 51 The most inspiring moment for me, in Chef Smyth’s Inaugural Talk, came near the end. It was his use of a quote from last year’s Irina Pistor 58 | Rachel Vorhand 60 | Gabrielle Furmanov 64 | Roberto Rocha-Flores 67 | Larisa Dryden 72 | Shalette Artis 80 and back cover book—The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot—to convey the thesis of this year’s. The words of Elie Wiesel were quoted and also edited. Now, where Wiesel refers to “persons,” Thom asked us to also use the word “animals”: “We must not see any person [animal] as an abstraction… we must see in every person [animal] a universe.” When Wiesel said those words, he was referring to the mass murder of human beings, mostly Jewish human beings, during the Nazi Holocaust, human beings abandoned by all things right and good, forced Lacks, another human being—an African-American human being—abandoned by the rights her citizenship had ostensibly guaranteed her, Now, as these words are re-applied in our work on Eating Animals, they come to hold a new, if allied, meaning, a connection “Smoke” unambiguously implied by Foer and captured in the superb cover illustration for this year’s journal, by Joseph Velazquez. Foer begins his narrative at the intersection of power, politics and (not just food, but) starvation through the story of his grandmother, a Holocaust survivor chapters—a book called Eating Animals—is captured in the incident in which she refuses to eat pork despite the fact that she was literally starving to death. Foer inquires as to why she did not eat the meat gifted her by a sympathetic farmer, and this remarkable woman replies: “If nothing matters, there’s nothing to save” (17). Her words, too, carry a new meaning as Foer uses them to speak to and of the animal disregarded. engaged in, the issues we debated, the questions we asked, the critical thinking we entertained, the paideia we reached and demonstrated. This year, the common reading program was exponentially enhanced through sustained, meaningful collaborations with our Culinary Arts Program, our Urban Farm, our Women’s Center, our Honors House, and all of the departments and programs we come together with through course adoptions and through our annual conference.