Mediterranean Foodways

(3 Credits)

A bottle of olive oil, a basket of warm bread, platters of fresh produce, grilled fish: these are stock images of the Mediterranean diet. But whose Mediterranean, whose diet, and whose interests does this image serve? How does Mediterranean food relate to memory? How do Mediterranean foodways relate to forms of social difference, including ethnicity, gender, class, and nationality? How do Mediterranean foodways engage with the processes of globalization? What have been the effects of migration across the Mediterranean on its foodways? How do Mediterranean foodways respond to the pressures of climate change and industrial agriculture? In this class students will explore the intersections of food and culture through critical analysis of the Mediterranean diet and the Slow Food movement, and through field excursions to local food markets, an olive oil producer, and an experimental university food lab. Through case studies from around the Mediterranean as well as cooking and tasting, students will interrogate the multiple and contradictory ways traditions are created and recreated in a globalized world. This is an Away course in Florence.