Food Studies is a burgeoning, interdisciplinary, inherently politicized field of scholarship, practice, and art that examines the relationship between food and all aspects of the human experience. This encompasses culture and biology, individuals and society, global pathways and local contexts.
The Food Studies minor at Oxy invites you to advance your research and classroom studies of complex food-related issues across a broad range of curricula. The program provides a solid intellectual framework to complement the co-curricular energy around food on campus, increasing the rigor and discipline with which you will be able to use food as a lens for exploration and critical thinking.
With exposure to interdisciplinary resources across the breadth of liberal arts, you will learn to understand the complex contemporary and historical factors that affect food production and consumption as well as human physiological and dietary needs. You will consider food system options—comparing their environmental, sociocultural, economic and health impacts—and you will develop ideas about how you can contribute to solutions and explore multiple pathways to transformation.
The critical and cross-disciplinary thinking skills honed through Food Studies are applicable in a variety of careers in advocacy, policy, agriculture, food production, nutrition, public relations and development. You’ll also be prepared to pursue advanced academic training in public health, nutrition, food studies, or other related fields.