
































Conversations about Teaching Food and Culture 

Review by Andria D. Timmer

Teaching Food and Culture 

by Candice Lowe Swift & Richard R Wilk (eds) 

Left Coast Press, 2015

With the increase in food studies academic programs and food-centric courses in higher education,

Teaching Food and Culture is both timely and relevant. This edited volume includes selections from

scholar-teachers who have many years of experience in the field, and, as such, is a useful resource for

anyone who is teaching food and culture or who wants to incorporate these topics into their pedagogy.

As someone who has taught classes in Food and Culture for over a decade, I found many useful ideas

in this  volume.  More generally,  this  book opens up a necessary and insightful  conversation about

teaching, one that should perhaps also take place in a format other than a printed text.

Although food studies is inherently interdisciplinary and food related courses are “often taught by the

most creative and innovate faculty, who tend to disrespect the traditional boundaries between subjects”

(pp. 9-10), it  is appropriate that this volume is anthropological. As experts of what it means to be

human, anthropologists have long recognized the scholarly significance of food. The contributors have

an  evident  commitment  to  ethnography  and  bioculturalism.  All  anthropological  subfields  are

represented, though the obvious emphasis is on cultural anthropology.

The volume opens with an interview conducted by the editors with Sidney Mintz, one of progenitors of

food studies in anthropology. Although presented in a question and answer format, the editors explain

that the final piece was the result of an ongoing back and forth, so what appears in the book is a

thoughtful exploration of an admired scholar’s approach to a field. Mintz’s ability to systematically



think through complex issues is clearly evident here, and his insight gives a good overview to the field.

Following the introduction and interview, the remainder of the volume is divided into three substantive

sections. The first of the three sections presents a biocultural view to the study of food. Alexandra

Brewis, Amber Wutich, and Deborah Williams explain how they incorporate the topic of obesity as a

learning tool into their  classes. Jeanne Sept details how she uses food to introduce students to the

concepts of human evolution. Andrea S. Wiley discusses the usefulness of the single-food approach

using the example of milk.

The second section, Food Ethics and the Public, highlights how students can connect to the broader

food system within which they function. By connecting with something they are familiar with, students

can begin to make sense of how the bigger system functions. Peter Benson provides many examples of

how he uses food-based assignments to get students to understand the industry standards, big business,

and even existentialism. Carole Counihan describes an assignment she has used for many years of

sending students to a farmers market which requires students to think critically about the mundane.

Finally, Janet Chrzan discusses the benefits and pitfalls to using service learning in food-based classes.

The final section delves into issues of food and identity. David Sutton and David Beriss explain how

they use restaurant ethnography assignments to get students to understand how food and identity are

connected. The next two chapters, by Brian Stross and Amber O’Connor respectively, are written from

the perspective of linguistic anthropology which makes this volume an almost a four field approach.

(Sept makes a brief connection to archaeology, but other than that it is unrepresented.) Stross details his

syllabus for the course Anthropology of Food with a clear topic by topic overview showing how food

anthropology and linguistic anthropology inform each other. O’Connor explains how food can be used

to introduce students to language and culture and encourages them to think “of food as a semiotic

system” (p. 181).

The book concludes with a contribution by Penny Van Esterik who “describes how I came to define

myself  as a nutritional anthropologist,  to bring food issues into all  my anthropology teaching, and

eventually to focus most of my attention on food-based courses” (p. 193). Teaching informs research

and vice versa and in this chapter Van Esterik explores how her research translated into food-focused

teaching.



This volume is a valuable resource for anyone teaching a stand-alone course or wishing to use food as

an example to open discussions about topics such as evolution, poverty, inequality, or environmental

change. All the chapters are well-cited so the bibliography itself is of great value. Many contributors

have included full assignments in appendices and/or examples of successful student work. They reflect

candidly on how students responded to each of the assignments. Good teaching is collaborative; the

reader can take these pre-tested activities and modify them for a variety of different teaching situations.

All of these assignments and activities are complex and well-thought out. Despite the name, this book

does not just provide resources and insight from Food and Culture classes; instead, contributors discuss

their experiences in a range of different types of classes, and therefore treats the subject of food as a

tool  for  learning instead of  a  topic  of study. Food is  a constant  way for teachers  to connect  with

students regardless of their background or educational interests even as “educational tides shift” (p. 10).

No one volume containing only ten chapters can do justice to teaching food and culture. Food studies is

too vast, and food can easily be used as a vehicle to teach almost any core concept in anthropology.

Although the resources are useful and the assignment ideas intriguing, they represent only a very small

sample of the current scholarship in food and culture. Further, since this is a teaching resource, shorter

chapters with more examples and resources would have been useful.

It is unreasonable to fault a volume that brings together so many respected scholars to share their

perspectives on teaching for not doing enough. However, this critique emerges from a larger issue that

it is difficult to determine the target audience for this reader. Individuals such as myself, who have been

teaching food for years, will find inspiration in this work and will be able to take many of the examples

and use them in constructive ways.  That  being said,  there is  little  here that  is  new to a seasoned

professor. I, and many food studies professors I know, take an evolutionary approach to the study of

food  (like  Jeanne  Sept)  or  use  restaurants  or  farmers  markets  as  advantageous  locations  for

ethnography (like Sutton, Beriss, and Counihan). Through their writings, I have gleaned new insights

on how to present these assignments and integrate them in the class, but the contributions are more

inspirational than revelatory. Conversely, someone new to teaching food studies courses is not likely to

be able to use this resource to help them construct a stand-alone Food and Culture class. Except for the

late  Brian  Stross,  none of  the  authors  of  this  volume give  a  full  picture  of  a  course.  Rather  they

highlight certain assignments or discuss how they use food as an exemplar in non-food related classes.

Due to the current dynamism of food studies this volume can feel out of date even though it  was



recently printed. This speaks to the need for this or any other similar attempt to tap into continuing

conversations about the teaching of food and culture in the form of future volumes or online forums.

These conversations do happen on the Society for the Anthropology of Food and Nutrition (SAFN)

blog, and while the book is a useful addition, I have to wonder if this traditionally formatted volume

without connections to ongoing dialogues is the best means in this era to present a conversation about

teaching.

Despite my concerns about the audience and format of Teaching Food and Culture, I am excited to see

such a volume available and will return to it often in planning my future courses. I would recommend it

for any teacher of food, and I hope to see the conversation about teaching food and culture expand in

the coming years.

Andria D. Timmer is a lecturer of anthropology in the Department of Sociology, Social Work, and

Anthropology at Christopher Newport University.  Her research is focused on the manner in which

individuals  and  groups  work  to  enact  social  change,  particularly  in  regards  to  food  and  social

inequality. She has taught Food and Culture for six years.

© 2016 Andria D. Timmer


