Communication 494FI - Food as Communication

This course examines the ways food is made meaningful through discourse and performance. While the need for food to satisfy hunger and strengthen the body is universally understood, what counts as food, its relative abundance or scarcity, and its relationship to the body, identity and culture are socially created and highly symbolic. Still, for most people what we eat and why we choose to eat it seems common sense. Meanings attached to what is edible or inedible, good or bad, nutritional or unhealthy, gourmet or junk food are highly subjective and deeply cultural. Throughout your university career you have had the opportunity to take courses that provided you with a variety of lenses for examining the ways people use language to make meaning of their worlds. How might you use some of the theories of concepts from these courses to examine your own food beliefs and practices and the consequences of those practices on your own and others' lives and livelihoods? Assignments in this course include self-reflection papers, class presentations, reading responses and individual research or community-based group project. This is a team-based learning course and satisfies the integrative Experience requirement for Comm and BDIC majors.

Open to Senior and Junior Communication majors only. This course serves as an Integrative Experience (IE) requirement for BA-COMM majors.