Tell me what you eat and I will tell you what you are.

-- Anthelme Brillat-Savarin (1755-1826)

Sociology of Food
Fall 2010
MW 2-3:15
Dr. Idee Winfield

Contact: 88 Wentworth rm. 301 953-4899 winfieldi@cofc.edu

Office hours: MW 3:30-4:30; TTh 11-12

Why do we eat the way we do? Biology may dictate that we eat, but what and how we eat are organized
by wider cultural values and social practices. Whether we elect to “Super Size” our Happy Meals or relax with
reruns of the Iron Chef, harvest lunch from vending machines and food courts, or coax sustenance out of
backyard gardens and community soup kitchens, food remains central to how we engage physically, mentally
and emotionally with the world around us.

This course puts food -- something we all know a lot about --into its social contexts. We will explore how what
we eat, and the way we eat it, expresses our social identities (as members of social classes, ethnic groups,
religions, etc.); how preparing and consuming (or not consuming) food reproduce gender roles; how the
economic system for producing and marketing food affects what (and how much) we eat; and how food is both
an object of politics (e.g., a target for government regulation) and a subject of collective action (e.g., a basis for
social movements). Because collective identity, gender, business, and politics are all important topics in
sociology, the course covers a lot of sociological ground. By the end of the semester you will be a able to use
your sociological imagination to look at food and eating in its social context, and share that with others.

This course is also an introduction to college and the College of Charleston. By the end of the semester you will
have become part of the CofC community. You will know the location of social and academic resources and
how to use them. You will also learn something about what it means to be a member of the Charleston
community. You will know more about the peninsula -- its food cultures and many restaurants, the vast
disparity in access to food, and the many different subcultures and neighborhoods within a short distance of the
College.

As an introductory seminar, this is a discussion intensive course based on common readings. I do not plan to
lecture for an entire class session. I will provide reading/discussion questions (in the syllabus) to guide your
reading, but the success of this courses rests with you and your active engagement in discussion of the
questions I provide and the topics and questions you bring to class.

Readings:
Many of our readings are available on OAKS (see below) or on the Internet. Bring your reading to class – it will
be good to have these with you to refer to.

In addition, we have two books:

The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, by Michael Pollan.
Brewing Justice: Fair Trade Coffee, Sustainability, and Survival, by Daniel Jaffee.

These are available at University Books of Charleston on King St, and the College Bookstore on Calhoun St .
Earning Your Grade: Your final grade will be based on seven components:

30% Midterm and Final Exams

These will be essay exams based on the reading/discussion questions in your syllabus. Each is worth 15% of
your final grade. The Midterm is Oct. 6, the Wed before Fall Break. The Final is Dec. 8th. See the course
policies section for information about make-up exams.

10% Food in My Life Blog/Journal.

At least once a week , write about food and eating in your life on your blog. Describe what you ate, where,
when, with whom. Most importantly, note the social context – what kinds of interactions occurred and how
that affected your eating experience. The best journals will go beyond description and show evidence of
deep and thoughtful engagement with the ideas of the course as the course progresses. Take time to
think about how the time, place, or people affected your selection of food and you’re eating experience.
Think about how your understanding of these choices and experiences ties into the course readings. Be sure
to make explicit reference to specific readings. Since it is difficult to recall what you ate even after 24 hours,
make a point of reflecting at the end of a day. I will check these throughout the semester and make
comments. Only you and I will see the blog.

The last piece of this blog comes at the end of the semester when you will write a 250 word essay about
how your first semester in college affected what, how, and with whom you eat. This should be in your blog
and completed no later than December 1 st . Be sure to label this blog entry as your “food and the first
semester essay.”

Note: Spelling, grammar, organization count. Do not write this in text message format or as a continuous
stream of consciousness. Your blog should contain complete sentence and fully formed paragraphs. Don’t
hesitate to use the Writing Center, even if you’ve been told you are a “good writer.” If needed, I will suggest
you use the Writing Lab to work on these skills. Also, read the handout on “Writing Well” on OAKS.

10% Service Learning.

We will participate as a class in 6 hours of service to Gadsden Green Children's Garden
http://childrensgardenproject.org/gardens_chasdevacademy.html. It is a short ride on the downtown Carta
bus. We will do this several afternoons during the week after the children return from school. You will write
a reflective essay on your experience and how it relates to our class materials. I’ll give you more
information in class.

25% Out of Class Group Assignments

There will be one out of class group scavenger hunt designed to teach you about food on peninsular
Charleston and to get to know your new home. I’ll tell you more in class and the assignments will be posted
on OAKS. This is worth 10% of your final grade

For your second group project you will design a campus education program based on some aspect of the
course that you want to explore in relation to the campus. For example, do students on campus know where
their food comes from? Do they know what happens to leftover and discarded food? There are many many
possibilities. We will discuss this in class and groups will meet with me to finalize the topic. After you
complete the education initiative on campus, you will come back to the class and make an oral presentation
on what you did, why, and what you learned. This is worth 15% of your final grade

No free riders in group projects in this class, which means that your peers evaluate your contribution to
specific aspects of the project and I adjust your grade accordingly. If the group gets an A, but you made little
contribution, you will not receive and A.

15% Out of Class Individual Assignments

You will complete two individual out of class assignments – one is a sociological observation and the other
is a library scavenger hunt. I will give you more information in class and the assignments will be posted on
OAKS.
10% Engagement
It really is true that we learn best by doing – this includes actively engaging with the course material by
coming to class and bringing questions, offering examples, and participating in class activities. The same is
true of becoming a member of the College of Charleston community. Your transition will be much faster
and smoother when you engage in campus life.

One part of your engagement grade has to do with class. You earn your participation grade by attending
class AND actively participating. To the dismay of some students, warming a seat does not count as
participation! To participate effectively and constructively, you need to come to each class prepared to
talk about the readings. In fact, your most important task this semester is to learn to read effectively and
efficiently. Don’t be afraid to ask questions and offer personal reflection; just make sure it is related to the
topic at hand. Keep in mind that quality participation does not mean that all comments must be brilliantly
insightful; this class is intended to foster critical thinking. Questions and incomplete thoughts about these
issues contribute to the process of learning. Also, we can and should argue about ideas because that is the
heart and soul of a College education, but we will always do so with respect for each other. There’s a big
difference between attacking an idea and attacking a person.

I reserve the option to institute reading quizzes if I find that the class is not doing the reading for the
class session listed on the syllabus.. Which would you rather do?

I will occasionally ask you to prepare or do something for the next class discussion and complete written
assignments as part of in-class small group activities. I collect this work at the end of class. In addition, I will
make note of constructive contributions to class discussion and group activities. You only receive
participation credit if you are present for the entire class session, turn in any preparatory assignment during
that class session, and constructively contribute to group activities. You don't receive credit if you miss a
small group activity, don't come to class on time, or don't turn in the preparatory assignment during the
class session. No class participation work may be made-up. If you do this on a consistent basis throughout
the semester, you will find it easy to bump your letter grade by half.

The second part of your engagement grade involves participating in activities on campus that will help you
become a part of the campus community and help you learn about the resources available to you on
campus. Between now and the end of the semester you need to complete twelve (10) activities in 3
different categories:

5 College Community 3 College Success 2 Organized Out of Class

Activities Activities Events

Attend a campus
organization meeting (only
one meeting per
organization counts, but
you can try out 3 different
organizations).
Attend at least 4 different Study
Skills Seminars offered by the
Center for Student Learning.
These are offered on
Wednesdays at 6 pm in ECTR111
Thursdays at 4 pm in ECTR115
Come to the Food Film
Fridays at 6 p.m. and bring
a friend. We will watch
food movies such as
Ratatouille and Chocolat
and eat Pizza.

Attend a speaker on campus
Attend a Cougars Activity
Board Event
http://cab.cofc.edu/
Participate in one of the
activities during Hunger and
Homelessness week,
November 14-20.
Put a team together for the
gingerbread house contest
at the end of the semester
The seminars are listed at:
http://spinner.cofc.edu/studentlear
ningcenter/studyskills/seminars.ph
p?referrer=webcluster&
Join the class in a field trip
to North Charleston
performing Arts Center to
see Anthony Bourdain,
from the Travel Channel’s
No Reservations. Fri. Nov.
12 at 8 pm.
We can discuss other
possibilities once we get
to know each other.
Grading:
My philosophy on grades is this: They are yours to earn, not mine to give. Therefore, decide now what grade
you want to receive, and earn it!

A=90-100% A-=89% B+=88% B=80-87% B-=79% C+=78% C=70-77% C–=69% D=60-68 F= <60

In this class, an ‘A’ is reserved for truly excellent work. If you earn an ‘A’, you went above and beyond the call
of duty not just with your effort but with your performance. A ‘B’ indicates very good work. You did not just
do the minimum requirements, but you made an extra effort to show your skills, and your effort showed. A
‘C’ means you did average work; you did what was asked and you did it satisfactorily – nothing less, nothing
more. A ‘D’ means you need to improve—you did below the minimum requirements. An ‘F’ is guaranteed if
you turn nothing in or rarely come to class. You have to work at it to get an ‘A’ or an ‘F’ in this course. Your
grade is not determined by how much time you put or how “hard” you feel you worked. I use grading
rubrics that assess how well and how completely you accomplished what the assignment asks you to do –
in other words, what you actually produce. Please come see me during office hours if you have questions
about how to read, study, or take notes more efficiently and effectively.

Please come see me during office hours if you have questions about how to read, study, or take notes more
efficiently and effectively. I promise I don’t bite (

Assignments and Dues Dates

No late assignments accepted

Exams 15% Oct. 6; Dec. 8

each

Blog 10% every week; essay due no later than Dec. 1 midnight

Service Learning 10% service completed by Oct. 24th; reflective essay due in OAKS
dropbox by 2 pm Oct. 27th

Out of Class Group 10% Scavenger Hunt due in my OAKS dropbox before 2 pm
Assignments Nov.1

15% Campus Education Project

complete project no later than Nov. 20th; class presentation
Nov. 29 and Dec. 1

Out of Class Individual 5% Library Scavenger Hunt due in OAKS dropbox no later than
Assignments 5 pm Sept. 20.

Sociological Observation of Thanksgiving due in OAKS

10% dropbox before 2 pm Dec. 6.

Engagement 10% All semester. Dec. 6 is the last day to provide

documentation of campus community activities.
Class Policies:
• Make-up Exam policy
To be eligible to take a makeup midterm exam you must do three things:
1. You, or someone you trust, must call my office within 24 hours of the exam to say you are sick and
will miss the exam: 843.953.4899
2. You must present an excused absence verified through the office of the Dean of Students. I do not
verify your absence and you do not have to bring me your excuse. Rather you should take your note
from a physician or health services to the Dean’s office at 67 Glebe for verification. If you have a
death in the family, take a note from the funeral home to the Dean’s office. The Dean’s office will
send me a notification of whether you have provided a documented absence. Unverified self-
reported absences are not eligible for a make-up exam. If you are a student athlete on a CofC team,
make sure I have your travel schedule and see me about making arrangements for your absences.
3. You must make arrangements with me to take a makeup exam within one week of your return to
class.

There are no make-ups for in-class activities, homework, or reading quizzes.

• Follow common rules of respect.

Turn your cell phone COMPLETELY OFF as soon as you enter the classroom . Do not leave it on vibrate
and do not pull it out during class to text message or check messages. Otherwise I get free phone calls for
the next 24 hours on your phone! I have friends in faraway places (.

Come to class, be on time, and do not sleep, chit-chat, or engage in any other kind of disruptive behavior in
the classroom. You may think you are anonymous, but I can still see and hear you and your neighbors
definitely can too. Also, you are not invisible -- so don't walk in front of me or over top of your classmates
when class is in session (I get really pissed off when that happens). If for some reason you must leave class
early, be sure to sit near the door. Once you get to class, stay there – do not wander off to the bathroom
because you will miss important steps in the material.

• Communicate with me.

Talk to me, but do it at the right time. If you are having any problems with the material or have questions
about an assignment come see me during office hours or make an appointment to talk. Before class is not a
good time. I am busy setting up the technology and cannot give you my full attention. If you have
something you want me to know about, please save it to the end of class.

• Cheating is NOT a “good thing.”

It should go without saying, but anyone caught violating the College of Charleston Honor Code will receive
an ‘F’ on the assignment and have to go before the Honor Board. Folks, it's just not worth it.

Cheating includes using someone else’s work. You should be careful not to plagiarize by claiming someone
else's words as your own. If you do not know what plagiarism is you will as part of your assignments in the
course. You've now been told, so you cannot plead ignorance. An extension of this principle is group
assignments. It is cheating to claim the work of others as your own. That means that when you have a
group assignment, your name only goes on the assignment when you actually make an equitable
contribution ("equitable" does not mean "exactly the same," but it does mean that each member of the
group has made a contribution in balance with everyone else in the group). I will ask each member of the
group to assess everyone's contribution to the assignment and adjust your grades accordingly.
 Schedule *
Part I. Food and the Sociological Imagination
• What is the Omnivore’s Dilemma?
• What does it mean to say that food habits or foodways are social constructions? Does that mean it is all
in our heads?
• What does sociology mean by structural factors and how does this help us understand “America’s
National Eating Disorder?”How does the sociological approach help us understand the invention and
changes over time in the popularity of heirloom tomatoes?
• How does the sociological approach help us understand and explain both the various ways societies
solve the omnivore’s dilemma and also why it persists today in contemporary US society?

Aug. 25 Welcome: Introductions and Overview

Aug. 30 Berry: “The Pleasures of Eating” http://www.ecoliteracy.org/essays/pleasures-eating

The Omnivore's Dilemma: pp. 1-11, 297-303
Day: “They Eat Horses, Don’t They?”
http://www.chow.com/food-news/53692/they-eat-horses-dont-they/

Sept. 1 Germov and Williams: “Introducing the Social Appetite: Towards a Sociology of Food and
Nutrition”
Jordan: “The Heirloom Tomato as Cultural Object: Investigating Taste and Space.”

Part II. What to Eat? Food, Identity, and Social Boundaries

• If we are what we eat, who are you? What do your meals and foodways reveal about the ways that social
class, race and ethnicity, femininity and masculinity, religion, family, region, sub-cultural loyalties,
political commitments shape who you are?
• Explain how we use commensality as a social glue to bind us together and create/maintain social order?
• How do structural factors, such as access to food, shape food choices and preferences? Do these come
into conflict with each other? How so and how do you handle it?
• In what ways is what and how we eat a form of cultural capital? How does it affect your access to or
exclusion from social networks that contain political and economic resources as well as emotional ties
of mechanical solidarity?
• In what ways are our meals the source of considerable pleasure (e.g., ritual feasts) and dread (e.g.,
concern about weight and body image)?

Who are You? Food as Social Marker

Sept. 6 Anderson: “Me Myself and the Others: Food as Social Marker.”
Mortensen: Three Cups of Tea, Chapters 3 and 12

Sept. 8 Technology day: Rm 122 library – setting up a private blog, OAKS questions, library resources.

Sept. 13, 15 Beoku-Betts: “We Got Our Way of Cooking Things,” Women Food and Preservation of Cultural
Identity Among the Gullah.”
Bentley: “Martha’s Food: Whiteness of a Certain Kind.”
Tuchman and Levine: "New York Jews and Chinese Food: The Social Construction of an Ethnic
Pattern." http://soc.qc.cuny.edu/Staff/levine/SAFE-TREYF.pdf

Sept. 20 Finish Reading Mortensen Three Cups of Tea

Library Scavenger Hunt due in my OAKS dropbox before 2 pm. No late assignments allowed.

Establishing and Enacting Regional/National Identity

Sept. 22 Shelton Reed: Barbecue Sociology: The Meat of the Matter.”
Roof: Blood in the barbecue? : Food and Faith in the American South.
Explore: http://whatscookingamerica.net/AmericanRegionalFoods/RegionalAmericanIndex.htm
Food, Lifestyles and Life Chances: Social Class
Sept. 27 Germov and Williams: “Class and Socioeconomic status.”
Germov and Williams: “Class and Symbolic Consumption: Cultural Capital and Habitus”
Tolbert: “The Aristocracy of the Market Basket: Self Service Food Shopping in the New South.”

Sept. 29 Parker-Pope: “A High Price for Healthy Food”

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/12/05/a-high-price-for-healthy-food
Blanchard and Lyson: “Food Availability & Food Deserts in the Nonmetropolitan South.”

Gendered Food & Eating

Oct. 4 Druckman: “Why Are There No Great Women Chefs/?”
Mooney and Lorenz: “The Effects of Food and Gender on Interpersonal Perceptions”
Stibbe: “Masculinity, Health and Ecological Destruction”

Oct. 6 Midterm Exam

Oct. 11 Fall Break , no class, yeah!!!

III. The Political Economy of Food

• What are specific ways that the industrial food system has become rationalized (McDonaldized)?
• How do your own habits in the consumption of food reflect participation in and acceptance or
resistance to McDonaldization?
• The industrial food business is heavily dependent on persuading consumers to purchase value-added
(processed) products. How do they do this? What are their strategies, and how do they manipulate
cultural ideology to induce the American consumer to buy?
• What are the many irrationalities within the industrial food system and what unintended consequences
do they have?
• How has food production and consumption helped to determine the global distribution and control of
power and money?
• How does the global system of political and economic power support the industrial food system?
• What is food security? How and to what extent is food insecurity a consequence of the politics of the
global food system?
• What is Fair Trade and how is it both a social movement and an alternative to neoliberal free market
policies?

Where Does Our Food Come From? The Omnivore's Dilemma in a McDonaldized (Starbuckized) World
Oct. 13 Ritzer: “The McDonaldization of Society”
The Ominivore's Dilemma: pp. 15-84.

Oct. 18 Shih: “The Patented Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich: Food as Intellectual Property”
Watch: The Story of Stuff, http://www.storyofstuff.com/

The Irrationality of Rationality

Oct. 20, 25 The Omnivore's Dilemma: pp. 85-119
Robbins: Female Infants Growing Breasts
Heeter: “The Oil in Your Oatmeal”
Watch: The Story of Bottled Water: http://storyofstuff.org/bottledwater/
Greider: “The Last Farm Crisis”
Curran: “Millions Spent Lobbying Food Safety”
http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2010/08/millions-spent-lobbying-food-safety-during-second-quarter/

Fast Food World: The Politics of Globalized Food

Oct. 27, Jaffee: Brewing Justice
Nov. 1, 3
Service Learning Reflective Essay due in my OAKS dropbox no later than 2 pm Oct. 27
Group Scavenger Hunt due in my OAKS dropbox no later than 2 pm Nov. 1.
No late assignments allowed
Resistance to Corporate Industrial Food: Current Social Movements
Nov. 8, 10 The Omnivore's Dilemma: 123-129, 185-207, 239-261, 304-333
Browse these websites:
Lowcountry Local First http://www.lowcountrylocalfirst.org/programs.php
Slow Food: http://www.slowfood.com/ and http://www.slowfoodcharleston.org/
Community Supported Agriculture: http://www.localharvest.org/csa/
The New American Dream (Groceries section)
http://www.newdream.org/marketplace/index.php#
Watch The Meatrix: http://www.themeatrix1.com/ and explore the website.

IV. Food as Spectacle

Nov. 15, 17 Pollan: "Out of the Kitchen, onto the Couch"
Kaufman: “Debbie Does Salad”
O'Neill: "Food Porn"
Pariseau: “Has Food Styling Gone Too Far?”
th
Campus Education Project must be completed no later than Nov. 20

Nov. 22 Siskind: “The Invention of Thanksgiving”

Nov. 24 Thanksgiving Break , gobble gobble.

Nov. 29, Dec. 1 Class Presentations

Final Blog essay due by midnight Dec. 1 No late assignments allowed

Dec. 6 Wrap-up and Review

Sociological Observation of Thanksgiving due in my OAKS dropbox before 2 pm.
Last day to provide documentation of campus community activties, due at start of class.

Dec. 8 Final Exam 12-3 pm., our classroom

* The Schedule is subject to change. Any changes will be announced in class.