NUTR3040/AFST3097: African Diaspora Foodways and Health

This course will enable students to explore and better understand the rich culinary history of the African diaspora and the impacts of slavery, colonization, voluntary migration, social movements, and protest on dietary patterns and health. The focus of this course is on the various pathways of African foods and cultural practices from the continent to what became the African Diaspora. Through service-learning and culinary lab experiences, students will explore the growth stages of Afro-diasporic foods as well as the tastes and smells from traditional African foods to North American Soul Food.

This course invites students to critically examine food systems as social, political, economic, and cultural structures that profoundly influence population health and health equity through community-engaged partnerships, Socratic seminars, and culinary lab experiences. Students will explore global food and U.S. food systems, including the role of food commodities, industrial agriculture, and the influence of national and global agencies in shaping food production, regulation, and dietary guidance.