Click on the arrows to read more information about each course.
At the School of Arts, Sciences, and Engineering (ASE):
- ANTH 142 American MeatHistory and ethnography of meat production and consumption in the United States, from 1860 to the present. Cultural, environmental, and political economic factors that underlie the breeding, raising, slaughtering, and distribution of animal bodies. Changing forms of farm structure, biological industrialization, animal well-being, and the organization of labor. Recommendations: ENV 0009 or one Anthropology course. Tuesday 6-9 pm, Alex Blanchette
- ANTH 161 Fieldwork LabThis workshop-style class offers a hands-on introduction to ethnographic methods, the signature toolkit of cultural anthropology. Students will work individually and collaboratively on small-scale projects. Methods and skills covered will include the key strategy of “participant-observation”; research design; spatial, visual, and discourse analysis; formal and informal interviewing; fieldnote writing and coding; ethnographic writing and other products; and ethical considerations, including those arising from the politics of difference, encounter, experience, and representation as well as the balancing of scholarly, community, and client goals. This year’s class project is still being developed, likely around a partnership with a local food retailer. The course is open to students at all levels and counts toward the Social Sciences distribution requirement. It also counts as the practicum requirement for the Food Systems & Nutrition minor. 4 credits. Monday 1:30-4 pm, Cathy Stanton
- ANTH 174 Thinking with PlantsExplores use of plants as material resources (food, medicines, licit/illicit drugs, infrastructure) and as symbolic resources. Topics include circulation of plants; colonial cultivation, extraction, and power; place of plants in different lived environments and symbolic ecologies; plants, capitalism, and commodity chains; indigenous knowledge, tourism, and biopiracy; commercialization, criminalization and legality; multi-species approaches to living with and among botanicals. Monday 9-11:30 am, Tatiana Chudakova
- BIO 10/ENV 10 Plants and HumanityPrinciples of botany accenting economic aspects and multicultural implications of plants, their medicinal products, crop potential, and biodiversity. Emphasis placed on global aspects of this dynamic science, with selected topics on acid rain, deforestation, biotechnology, and other applications. Also covered are medicinal, poisonous, and psychoactive species, as well as nutritional sources from seaweeds and mushrooms to mangos and durians. Three lectures. Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday 9:30-10:20, George Ellmore
- BIO 185/ENV 182 Food for All: Ecology, Technology, SustainabilityAn interdisciplinary examination of the pros and cons of two divergent approaches to meeting the increasing global food demand: organic farming and genetic engineering. Contrasting crops grown in developing and industrialized countries serve as case studies to evaluate: (1) how ecological knowledge makes food production more sustainable; (2) what existing and emerging approaches can, in the face of climate change, contribute to a reliable supply of nutritious food; and (3) the political and economic drivers that shape who has access to these technologies. An important focus is developing communication skills for negotiating stakeholder-specific perspectives (growers, advocacy groups, industry, governmental agencies). Please see departmental website for specific details. Recommendations: Intro Bio or Intro Chemistry or equivalent. Monday 1:20-4:20, Sara Gomez
- BME 173 Cellular Agriculture and Biofabricated FoodsIntroduction to the concepts of cellular agriculture, food science and the use of biotechnology in food production. Laboratory experience in cell culture and biomaterials processing from cell isolation to generation of in vitro meat using tissue engineering techniques. Course culminates in a scientific, creative proposal based on student interests. Monday 6-9 pm, David Kaplan
- BME 174 Cellular Agriculture & Cultured MeatScientific process of producing meat from cell culture (termed “cultured meat”). Cell isolations and cell culture, cell analysis (such as immunostaining), and various food science analyses (of texture, flavor, etc.). Distinctions between biomedical engineering for food and biomedical engineering for medicine, demonstration of key areas of research that are needed to advance the field of cellular agriculture. Recommendation: BME 0173. Thursday, 6-9 pm, staff
- CH-0199 Beyond the Food DesertCritical inquiry into the theories, measures, and policies that influence how we think about and define “healthy food access.” Covers predominant models of food access in the US evaluations of place-based policies to improve food access, and structural and historical factors that influence the food environments of today. Class discussions and debates will challenge students to engage with active policy discussions about the future of food access in the US. 4 credits. Open to CH majors who have completed the core CH courses or have instructor permission. Thursday 1:30-4 pm, Ben Chrisinger
- ED 14 Food and SchoolsThe story of food and schools, investigations into students’ own school experiences as they relate to food and school; the history of food in U.S. schools; the ways by which school food is a battleground for many beliefs about school and society; and how some schools approach feeding students and teaching about nutrition and food. Field work will involve visits to local educational institutions. Tuesday/Thursday 10:30-11:45, Ryan Redmond
- ENV 9 Food SystemsIntroduction to the structure and functions of past, present, and future food systems. Emphasis is placed on the psychological, biological, social, economic and political systems that impact food production, processing, distribution, and consumption. Examination of real-world issues facing stakeholders in the New England food system. Mon/Wed 4:30-5:45, Cathy Stanton
- HIST 5 History of ConsumptionThe socio-political history of the use made of goods, food, and energy by different groups through an analysis of class, race, and gender. The course examines economic factors through social and cultural history in order to understand consumption within a global economy. Analysis of social structures in the Americas, China, Europe, India, and the Ottoman Empire, from the seventeenth century to the present day. Online, time not specified; recitations Thursday 12-12:50 or 6 to 6:50 pm, Ina Baghdiantz-McCabe
- ITAL77 Italian FoodwaysHistorical, cultural, and social overview of foodways in Italy. National culinary identity and its effects on food production, preparation, consumption, and exportation. Cultural and economic significance of regional specialties officially protected by the European Union. Health benefits and social practices related to the Mediterranean diet and to nutrition in the Italian “blue zones.” Traditional production techniques, current food systems, and their place in the environment during the era of climate change. Sustainable practices and food security initiatives; social justice; immigration and food evolution; physical and mental health. Readings, podcasts, and movies. Taught in English. No prerequisites. Tues/Thurs 4:30-5:45, Rose Elizabeth Facchini
- PSY 128 Nutrition and BehaviorThe interactions between nutritional variables and behavior in man and other animals. Effects of obesity, starvation, protein malnourishment, and vitamin and mineral deficiencies on intellectual function and behavior. Influences of diet on brain biochemistry and learning. Tuesday 4-6:30 pm, Grace Giles
- UEP285/DEIJ214 Food JusticeThis class offers students different lenses, such as critical race theory, to see how the intersectionality of race, class, gender, sexuality, ability and citizenship play out in the development of systemic structural and socio-spatial inequities and injustices in food systems. It develops an understanding and contextualization of the role of food justice activism within the broader narrative of the alternative food movement and offers emerging ideas about how policymakers and planners can take a role in increasing food justice beyond the more mainstream and ultimately contested notions of what is ‘local’ and ‘sustainable.’ The course will help participants chart their role(s) in advocating for ‘just sustainability’ as a defining factor in becoming food systems planners and policymakers. Wednesday, 1:30-4 pm, Julian Agyeman
At the SMFA campus
- CER 0144 Food: The Social and Functional Politics of the TableInvestigate the cultural connections of food and community. Create service-ware, place settings, cutlery, table vessels, and their associated objects. Research dining rituals, practices, contexts, and table objects, focusing on the intersection of food, politics, consumers, and culture. Co-taught studio-based course in the Ceramics and Metals Studios. Design and make a tableware setting for two, create a menu, invite a guest, and share a meal. 4 credits. Wed 8:30-11 am (Tanya Crane); Wed 2:30-5 pm (Michael Barsanti)
At the Friedman School for Nutrition Science and Policy
NOTE: Friedman School courses require the instructor’s consent for undergraduates to enroll. Undergrads may be able to register for other Friedman School courses with permission of the instructor. If you’re not sure whether a course will count toward the Food Systems & Nutrition minor or the food track of the ENVS major, email cathy.stanton@tufts.edu.
- NUTR 215/UEP 223 Foundations of US AgricultureThis course covers the major social, institutional and human aspects of the American agricultural system, both as it exists today as well as its historical development. After consideration of agricultural systems in general and of the values that underlie different concepts of agriculture, it covers some of the key historical forces that have made American agriculture what it is today, and the major role of the federal government, both past and present. The next part of the course deals with the economics of American agriculture as a whole and its large-scale structure, followed by an analysis of farming on the microlevel, emphasizing types of farms and farm-scale production economics. Recommendations: Graduate Standing or instructor consent. Wednesday 9 am-12 pm, Nicole Tichenor Blackstone