Prepare yourself to explore the relationship between food, culture, and design! As a student in this course you will delve into the ways that food is used to define identity and community, as well as its various tools and power dynamics. 

Farm to Table, will investigate how people use food to define themselves as individuals, groups or whole societies. We will identify the meaning and significance of food by exploring the way that ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic status and religion, among other factors, influence our food choices or preferences. 

Additionally, we will examine how culture is transmitted and preserved through food. Through reading scholarly articles, personal essays, book excerpts, newspaper articles and cookbooks we will explore the intricate relationship that people have with food.

We will look critically at the following questions: how can food have different meanings and uses for different people? How does food function both to foster community feeling and drive wedges among people? What are some prevailing academic theories that help us identify and understand subtler meanings of food?

Through a range of hands-on cooking experiments and hands-on design projects, students will explore the implications, systems, experiences, products, technologies, and data related to food culture. Drawing on the expertise of award winning chefs, authors, professors, and restaurateurs, this course centers the perspectives of marginalized communities and challenges students to consider how design can promote radical change in the food industry.

Learn With

Teaching Team