Food, Power, and Identity in America

Instructor: Zohra Saed
Fridays, 2:00 PM – 4:40 PM
Macaulay Classroom 204
Course Code: MHC 352
Modality: Hybrid Synchronous

This hopes to focus on food and food pathways in the USA, of course, students can start with New York as their place to study. In this examination of food as resistance, we will look at the critical role that food has played in preserving cultural connections, for example, the West African food traditions and rituals preserved in African American cuisine; to food as resistance in the breakfast programs initiated by the Black Panthers and continued by the Young Lords in New York. This course will study the growth of ethnic minorities that form many immigrant communities in New York, especially those who preserve their identity through food. In this course we will think critically about how we consume food; and what is revealed about power dynamics when we think through what we find abject in what others eat, versus what we find “home” like in food. This will be supplemented with primary research at archives, and through interviews or through research of oral history collections.

This is a ZTC (zero textbook cost) course.

In-Person Meeting Dates:
2/2, 3/1, 3/22, 3/29, 4/19, 4/26, 5/3, 5/10

Preliminary Syllabus