Food Studies (FOOD-GE)

Course addresses market needs, research methods, trend projections, feasibility analysis, evaluation strategies, capital and operational budgets, and financing for development of food projects. These projects might include feasability studies, environmental impact studies, and design and construction plans.

Affirm the value of creativity in entrepreneurship; learn the specific processes needed to develop and open a new start up food business – product and/or retail; learn basic financial guidelines needed to open a new food business; understand unique attributes of food business financial styles and benchmarks; understand general steps to develop, manufacture and launch a food product; learn the logistic systems requirements and other resources for proper operation; and, understand the current labor challenges and issues.

Consumer behavior in food markets is more complex than "voting with your fork." In this course, students examine theoretical tools of consumer behavior, including how consumer preferences, prices and income inform individual choice, and apply those tools to food markets and systems. Applications vary by term. Past applications include the impacts of racial discrimination, gender pay gap, food support systems, and others. No previous economics coursework required.

Firm strategic behavior has a large influence on the food system. In this course, students use intermediate microeconomic analysis to deepen their understanding of how and why firms operate in the food system. Theoretical tools are developed in the first half of the course, including how firms maximize profits under competition, monopoly and oligopoly. Next, students examine firm organization, using transaction costs to understand why firms exist and why some firms choose to vertically integrate. Past case studies include meat packing, organic milk processing, and contracting in agriculture. No previous economics coursework is required.

We examine food from historical and transnational perspectives, including agricultural origins, famines, co-evolution of world cuisines and civilizations, global exchange and spread of food and technologies following the Columbian invasion, issues of hunger, and the effects of the emergent global economy on food, production, diets, foodways and health. Students gain a greater understanding of how food production and consumption influences a myriad of factors, including politics, economics, prevailing notions of health, climate, geography, technology, and culture.

Explore how food is used as a tool in social movements across cultures and time. Course themes include food and revolutions, food as social resistance, weaponizing food and food as an apparatus for government policies. Students will learn that food can be both a force for change as well as oppression.

Overview of the policy making process, particularly as it concerns U.S. food and nutrition policy. Students consider the role and organization of government in the realm of food and nutrition policy and examine all stages of the policy cycle, including agenda setting, policy formulation, implementation, and evaluation. Topics include the role of government in regard to agriculture, global food trade, food safety, retail and restaurants, and nutritional support.

We examine contemporary food production, distribution and consumption in the context of social, cultural, technological and biological processes through globalization. Employing the humanities and the social sciences, this course prepares students to analyze the current American food system, its global connections, and proposed local alternatives. Through lectures, readings and research the students master contemporary urban food cultures and produce new knowledge.

This course offers an in-depth look at a specific cuisine or cuisines. We look at the historical evolution of cuisine including but not limited to agriculture, technology, geo-political forces, climate change, geographic border changes, colonialism, post-colonialism, and nationalism. We analyze this cuisine in its specific cultural context as well as through a broader, global prism. We pay particular attention to performances of national identity through food and cooking. We rely on both academic research and cookbooks.

This course combines practical lessons in writing for a popular audience with a bird’s eye view of the tradition of food writing; an engagement with craft; and a contemporary understanding of food’s place in our culture and politics. We address social trends and movements including political upheaval, racial and economic justice, gender and identity, and intense social change through writing about food. Students learn the publishing and editing process.

Studying in Washington, DC, we undertake a deep study of sustainable and organic agriculture policy by examining research, advocacy and policymaking. Relying on the expertise of locally based scholars, researchers, and advocates, the course consists of lectures, panel discussions, Q&A sessions with experts, and site visits to better understand how these three key components interact.

In this hands-on communications course on food media, students learn how to use use social media, write for the web, analyze photography and video, and build and develop a website for an idea -- whether it be business, personal, or professional.

We explore the intersection of gender, sexuality, identity, culture and food. Students analyze sexual identity, human sexuality, sexual orientation and gender on real and perceived cultural views of food and consumption. Topics include how society assigns gender to food by investigating historical and contemporary texts. Employing advertisements, menus, cookbooks, TV, films and packaging, students critically analyze gendering practices. Theoretical frameworks include queer theory, early feminist theory, Whiteness theory and male studies and transgender studies.

Basic principles of winemaking, fermentation, tasting analysis, and grape/grain variety study with a practical overview of restaurant and retail beverage programming. Considers cultural, political, legal, and climate-related factors.

This course examines the role of U.S. food and agricultural policy in perpetuating racial and economic inequality. Topics include agriculture, class and race; farm size and inequality; farm labor; low-wage workers in the food chain; food insecurity; and environmental inequality. The class covers both historical and contemporary social movements that respond to inequities within the food system. The course prepares students to effectively evaluate contemporary legal and policy responses to food systems inequality.

This course provides a practical introduction to urban agriculture. Students learn horticultural skills at the NYU Urban Farm Lab. Students learn about biological processes and how they fit together in a system. Through visits to other sites around the city, students are exposed to various strategies for practicing urban horticulture. Additionally, we engage with greater themes found within urban agriculture such as entrepreneurship, food justice, individual and group sustenance, cultural enactments of identity, community building, and education.

The core Food Systems course covers the US food system from an applied economic perspective, recognizing that the food system operates in a market. We begin by studying the mechanics of the different stages of the food system: farm, distribution, retailing and consumer. The course then turns to social and environmental costs of the food system. After covering the strengths and weakness of the food system, students explore topics such as sustainability, globalization, resiliency, consumer choice, and equity.

Examination of food service systems, with emphasis on site-specific and corporate functions and current trends in the industry.

We explore a broad range of advocacy tools and techniques to address issues that currently shape and challenge our food system. Topics include the legal and policy underpinnings of current food systems, economic and social conditions, inequities of access to healthy food, and public health concerns. Students gain an understanding of the policy, social and legal underpinnings of the food system, and learn to creatively and collaboratively develop effective approaches to address the many complex issues that characterize and threaten it.

Agricultural policy and some food policy is regulated by The Farm Bill, which Congress reauthorizes approximately every five years. This course covers the history of the farm bill, starting from its inception via the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1933 up to the most recent Farm Act. Students analyze how agricultural policy is influenced by the existing political, economic and agricultural climate at the time the Farm Bill is being debated. Key shifts in farm policy include the movement from direct farm support to crop insurance, and the recent inclusion of grant-funded programming for food movement-related programs.

Students design, develop, conduct, analyze, and present an evaluative or applied research project in food studies. Projects may be peer-review research papers, white papers, curriculum development, business plans, book proposals, longform journalism, media projects or proposed creative projects. Should be taken in the last year of study in the master’s program. May be taken in one or two semesters.

This course examines the legal and regulatory frameworks that underlie domestic food policy. Specific areas of emphasis are the jurisdictions of federal and state agencies, the role of the legislative bodies in creating policy, and the role of the judicial system in enforcing policies and regulations.

We examine broad issues that currently shape our food system and explore ways to mobilize legal and policy tools in order to strategically respond to these issues. Topics include legal and policy underpinnings of the United States’ and global food systems, economic and social conditions, inequities of access to adequate healthy food, and public health and environmental crises. Students gain an understanding of the legal and policy pathways and develop effective actions to address the many complex issues that characterize—and threaten—our food system.

This course introduces students to the concepts, frameworks & models to systematically build successful, socially-conscious businesses that are both sustainable & public health-driven. Topics will include how to 1) identify & analyze need-gaps, 2) develop a sustainable-food business concept, 3) identify a profitable niche in the global, social-justice oriented market, & 4) raise capital in innovative ways. The course will also provide access to domain-specific resources including key industry participants, industry experts & research partners.

This course examines the organic food system from multiple angles, starting with the historical evolution of organic food and agriculture. Specific aspects studied may include how organic certification works, biodiversity in the organic system, organic’s potential for climate change mitigation, the political economy of the US organic regulation, and international trade of organic products. Students analyze current debates, such as how regenerative agriculture fits into the organic landscape and how to improve organic integrity along the supply chain.

This studio and seminar course explores the basic principles of food biochemistry, enzymology and food processing and how they relate to memory, the senses and the processing of information. Students learn the basic principles of molecular gastronomy and modernist cuisine as framing devices for understanding how food also functions in the context of bodily health, environmental health as well as cultural and political narratives. Assignments are based on the incorporation of food science into design and technology projects.

Demonstrations of techniques for photographing foods for use in print and other media formats.

Introduction to foods from various nationality groups through lectures, demonstrations, and field trips.

We identify the meaning and significance of food in different cultures by exploring the way that ethnicity, gender, race, socioeconomic status and religion influence our food choices and food preserves culture. We look critically at the following questions: how can food have different meanings and uses for individuals, groups, or societies? 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 individual and collective identities?

The ways in which writers, artists, musicians, and filmmakers have used food as a theme or symbol for reasons of aesthetic, social, cultural, or political commentary.

We learn how various art forms express food’s changing meaning over time. Employing various fine art forms, both historically and contemporary, we question how food in art parallels cultural identity. This course explores fine art throughout the globe.

The hands-on course introduces students to food styling, with dedicated time working in the NYU Food Lab where students develop practical skills and gain experience with styling food. The practical work is complemented by discussions of the history of food styling, current trends, and the varying formats food styling takes in the food industry. Students will build a foundation of knowledge and practical skills as they learn the craft of food styling. Students should have basic, home level cooking skills.

We examine ways in which artists have used food in performative expressions, as well as ways that eating, cooking, and serving food in popular culture, art, and media can be a performative act. We will look at food as an artistic medium, as opposed to a subject. In addition, we will look at food and cooking as a substance and act that can fuel performance in the everyday.

Examination of theoretical literature commonly employed and debated within the humanities and social sciences. Through the work of established social theorists and scholars, students explore on-going debates in traditional academic disciplines and understand their usefulness to recent scholarship in developing food studies.

This course focuses on the role design plays in framing the food environment, from production to consumption and explores how designers influence and shape stakeholders in the food system. Students investigate the interaction of users with designed places, objects, sensorial experiences as well as ideas, services, and systems and learn to analyze the built/material work.

This course will explore food messaging and representation in moments of crisis, both historically and also in our current COVID-19 moment. Employing multiple lenses including ethical, political, communal, and individual, we’ll examine such topics as medieval religious aestheticism/asceticism, World War II propaganda, global notions of food waste, the ethos of food sharing and commensality, and media messaging in the contemporary COVID moment.

This course critically analyzes how food is portrayed across media platforms. We unpack how media influences taste, purchases, and food beliefs; how it develops characters by what they eat and drink; and how it creates trends and movements. We explore cooking as entertainment, food as personal identity, and how media intersects with class, gender and racial tropes. Beginning with theory and moving through print, television, film, and the internet, students interact with the messages that define American food culture.

Using a wide range of film genres, we examine food’s role in the human experience. Food and foodways in film portray food and cooking norms, but also provide subtle and overt messaging about culture, ethnicity, race, class and gender. Using a survey of international 20th and 21st century films where food and foodways function as a foundational aspect combined with related texts, students explore food as a visual messenger. Employing film criticism and theory, students will develop an understanding of the performative aspect of food in art and in our daily lives.

Principles and practice of indentification, comparison, and evaluation of selected foods, ingredients, techniques, and equipment for recipe formulation, menu planning, or preparation with an emphasis on modifications to meet specific nutritional or other requirements.

We investigate New York City immigrant history and the fabric of today’s emerging communities. In addition to historical and contemporary readings, we “walk” the community through exploring restaurants, community centers, food markets, street vendors, historic and cultural sites. Students explore these communities not as outsiders looking in, but rather through their eyes and through their perspective, and learn GIS mapping tools.

New York City has a long history in food manufacturing with recent years experiencing a resurgence of small-scale businesses. The field trips explore both newer and older food and beverage manufacturing/production facilities operating at a variety of scales in order to analyze the food manufacturing in New York City. How do they intersect with their surrounding communities and with the environment? What narratives are embedded within these businesses? How viable/sustainable are these businesses? What is the future of urban food manufacturing?

Of the 8 billion people on the planet today, only about 2 billion rely on supermarkets and grocery stores for their food. The remaining 6 billion rely on street vendors, formal and informal food markets that take place on sidewalks, street corners, alleys, and parking lots. This course examines the cultural aspects and processes related to food provisioning, in a global context.

Improving food access in underserved communities is a key focus of healthy food policy. Building on the foundation of the core course Food Policy, this course is a deep study of two to three existing food policies. Students will learn how the policies were created, how they were implemented, and the intended goals of the policies. We engage in critical analysis of the consequences. effectiveness of policies through a careful examination of the peer reviewed research that assesses whether the intended goals were achieved and whether there were any unintended

Super storms, drought, abundant chemical and fertilizer overuse and misuse, ozone depletion, fossil fuel exploitation and a host of bad decisions have contributed the myriad causes of climate change and the shifting landscape of our food system. We have become accustomed to eating whatever we want whenever we want for more than 60 years; it’s been a very good culinary life for many. The bill for this reinforcing feedback loop of heavy dependency on petrochemical fertilizers, mono-cropping, shrinking land on which to farm, and the worldwide demand for cheap and abundant food has been proffered; and the truth is we have been writing checks our planet cannot cash and many of the foods we’re too fond of (coffee, chocolate, peanuts, almonds, berries) are becoming harder to grow and the predictions that these foods will either lose their flavor or disappear completely. This class will look at the future of food through the lenses of Design Thinking + Systems Thinking addressing these increasingly problematic issues in our food system and how we can dive and design more sustainable modes of operation, using sustainable materials and still have our food taste good. Students will work on small scale projects that tackles this concert at hat the local and global level.

This course explores how food traditions and heritage are identified, supported, and promoted at national and global levels, and examines their role and functions in Spaniards’ everyday life. Through visits to markets, bakeries, wholesale and retail outlets, tapas and wine bars, restaurants, and menu del día eateries we examine how tradition and heritage are brought into the 21st century in public spaces that are also symbolic for local and national identities. Food professionals and experts, designers and scholars help us understand the dynamics of this unique country.

We explore the performance of French identity through the lens of food to unpack how gender, race, socioeconomic status, and immigration clash with the espoused French national ideal of “Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité”. Through visits to markets, restaurants, bakeries, wholesale and retail outlets, farms, and cooperatives, we explore the material culture that makes possible acquiescence and resistance to these ideas of identity and ultimately will discover the limits and possibilities implicit in our own personal ideals.

This course delves into the intersection of food, art, and ethics, exploring how art can challenge and expand our understanding of ethical issues related to food. Examining a diverse array of artistic expressions reveals how artists use food to encourage, critique, or re-imagine existing power structures and social, economic, environmental, and political dynamics. We critically explore how art can shape belief systems, values, and actions, and offer creative possibilities of how people might live.

This course explores food systems and culture in the broader Southern California region, unpacking how issues of race, socioeconomic status, gender, and ethnicity intertwine with geography, politics, and economics to create the present-day global metropole facing a myriad of issues including climate change. Through guest lectures, student projects, and site visits to museums, markets, farms, cooperatives and restaurants, students gain a multi-faceted understanding and appreciation of this remarkable city and its people.

We focus on sustainable food systems within their local communities in this experiential field trip-based course. Using Eastern Long Island, an area that has been successfully farmed for centuries as a case study, we explore issues surrounding sustainable agriculture. Includes visits to farms, wineries, scallop and oyster underwater farms, as well as lectures by pioneering land and sea preservationists, beekeepers, and others. We critically evaluate the meaning of sustainability as it applies to agriculture and aquaculture, and how it relates to the community.

Urban policy makers embrace local food systems as a solution to a myriad of urban problems, including lack of green space and a dearth of healthy food availability. At the local and state levels, policies are often based on visions of how food might be grown in a city without considering logistic feasibility or economic viability. This course probes the practical implications of growing food within urban environments.

Domestic climate policy focusing on food and agriculture has evolved since the turn of the 21st century, prompted by disruptions caused by climate events such as drought and flooding. The intersection of climate events, advocacy, politics, and research sets an environment for federal food and agriculture policies that target climate change. Examining the process of policy creation and related government programming allows us to understand the potential for agriculture and food systems to both withstand and address the existential threat of climate change.

Three waves of migration from different parts of the world have shaped the American diet. The first consisted of Northern Europeans and Chinese (until 1882), followed by a Mediterranean and Eastern European wave (1880-1924). The 1965-2023 wave consisted of migrants from Asia and Latin America. Each wave brought the taste for its produce, stimulating American demand for products such as olive oil, avocados and chilies. We interrogate the transformation of American foodways with each wave of migration in terms of ethnic entrepreneurship and taste.

This course focuses on how drinking of beverages has shaped human history and expressed cultural values. The course takes an interdisciplinary approach to examine the relationship between beverages and power from the earliest evidence of intoxicants to the various ways that political, social, and religious institutions have controlled who gets to drink what and when. Students will explore the geographical and political factors that led to the creation of various beverages.

This course explores organic agriculture from multiple angles, starting with a historical exploration of organic & finishing with policy approaches to organic. Specific aspects studied include the environmental benefits of organic production systems, the political economy of the US organic regulation, health benefits of organic, & organic consumption and marketing.

Course examines the process of agricultural globalization & its effects on the process of rural & agricultural development in the global south. Specifically, analyze the incorporation of agricultural producers & processors in developing countries into the supply chains of global food brands & retailers. The goal is to identify how globalization is shaping institutions that govern agricultural laborers in poor & middle income communities, who are the most vulnerable actors in the global economy

Course explores the intersection of gender, identity, culture & food. Students will analyze the influences of sexual identity, human sexuality, sexual orientation & gender on real & perceived cultural views of food & consumption. Topics will address how society assigns gender to food by investigating historical & contemporary texts. Employing advertisements, menus, recipes, cookbooks, television programs, films & packaging, students will critically analyze gendering practices. Theoretical frameworks will include queer theory, early feminist theory, Whiteness theory & emerging male studies & transgender studies.

This course examines the role of U.S. food & agricultural policy in perpetuating racial & economic inequality. Topics include agriculture, class & race in the 19th century; farm size & inequality; farm labor; low-wage workers in the food chain; food insecurity; & environmental inequality. The class covers both historical & contemporary social movements that respond to inequities within the food system. By introducing students to historical documents, empirical research, & the academic literature on these & related topics, the course prepares students to effectively evaluate contemporary legal & policy responses to food systems inequality.

Agricultural policy and some food policy is regulated by The Farm Bill. This course covers the history of the farm bill, starting from its inception via the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1933, up to contemporary farm bills. The course will analyze current proposals for agricultural policy, given the contemporary political, economic and agricultural climate.

It should be noted that independent study requires a minimum of 45 hours of work per point. Independent study cannot be applied to the established professional education sequence in teaching curricula. Each departmental program has established its own maximum credit allowance for independent study. This information may be obtained from the student's department. Prior to registering for independent study, each student should obtain an Independent Study approval from the adviser.

The Food Studies Doctoral seminar is required for all Food Studies doctoral students from their first semester to their last. Food Studies doctoral students enroll each semester until the time of graduation (even for students conducting fieldwork outside of NYC). The doctoral students and faculty meet five times a semester for three hours. Students discuss their progress, read and discuss assigned readings, and give seminars on their research.