Food Studies - Graduate Minor

The purpose of the Food Studies Graduate Minor is to:

  1. Enable students to develop a specialization in food studies within their respective graduate program
  2. Develop specialized knowledge of the complex and dynamic relationship between food and culture
  3. Explore the role of culture in food production, distribution and consumption across different cultures
  4. Apply ideas and knowledge from graduate seminars to fieldwork for MA thesis or internship in a food studies topic

Program Requirements

Prefix Title Credits
Core Curriculum
Select three from the following: 19
Ethnographic Field Methods3
Issues in Nutritional Anthropology3
Plants, Culture, and Sustainable Development3
Culture and Foodways3
Applied Anthropology 23
Adv. Human Health and Biological Variation 23
Total Credits9
1

Alternative classes may be substituted for one of the core classes with the approval of the Anthropology Department Head.

2

In these cases, the student's class research project should focus on a food studies theme.

Students are expected to conduct a food studies thesis, applying anthropological theoretical frameworks and ethnographic methodologies to the study of a food-related topic. Non-thesis students may select a food studies internship.  Possible topics include sustainable development, alternative food movements, community food security, community health, nutrition, food safety, globalization of food, indigenous knowledge systems, food self-sufficiency, among others.