The theme of the Florence study abroad trip is the Italian slow food movement, which was dreamed up in 1986 by Italian food and wine journalist Carlo Petrini as a way to oppose the encroachment of fast food into Italian culture. This course will build on the semester-long theme by specifically exploring issues of food and feminism as we examine literary treatments of food and how they relate to women’s issues. Topics will include food, power, and domestic ideology; women’s use of and susceptibility to poisons and toxins; food and ethnic/family identity; food and bodies/body image; sustainable food practices; ecofeminism; and agricultural and environmental sexism/racism.
Students completing the course should gain a broad, interdisciplinary understanding of food, culture, and gender. Students will also develop skills in reading and interpreting both literary and critical texts, and in writing their own original analyses.
Books
• The Awakening by Kate Chopin (1899)
• We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson (1962)
• The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston (1976)
• A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley (1991)
• Selected short stories and essays (PDF files online)
General Education Student Learning Outcomes, Humanities:
This course counts as a general education humanities credit. Such courses share the following student learning outcomes:
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Students conduct or provide analyses or interpretations to substantiate claimsSpecifically, students…
- identify or frame a claim or assumption requiring evidence or support.
- use appropriate evidence to support an analysis.
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reach a warranted conclusion
These outcomes will be assessed using Paper #1—Summary and Response.