ANTH 311 A: The Cultural Politics of Diet and Nutrition

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COVID Policy Update:

In accordance with University policy, this course will be taught remotely for the first week of the quarter. As of January 2, given the Omicron surge, I am inclined to extend that into mid-January when the infection rate is expected to decline. After that and if conditions allow, it will be taught on campus and also on zoom in real time.  I will keep the class posted on any changes via the class email list.

Zoom recordings will also be linked on the course syllabus within 24 hours after the scheduled lecture for students unable to attend on Zoom at the scheduled time. The first hour of each class will be in the format of a lecture presentation. The second hour will be in a discussion format and sometimes there will be video material presented.

Trigger Warning:

This class will include material that critiques moral judgments about body size. The objective of the course is to redirect our gaze away from individual responsibility and toward the toxic food environment of industrial food as a causal factor in the obesity epidemic. However, if you have struggles with eating disorders now or in the past, you might want to discuss your plan to take this course with your health care support team to make sure that this will not hinder your progress towards well-being. 

Class Time and Place: T, Th, 2:30-4:20 GWN 201

Instructor: Professor Ann Anagnost (anagnost@uw.edu)

Contact: anagnost@uw.edu. 

Instructor Office Hours: T, Th (by appt after lectures or other times when mutually convenient on zoom)

Teaching Assistants: Claudia Serrato, PhDc

Contact: serratoc@uw.edu

TA Office Hours: Th (by appt after the lecture, available from 4:30-5:30 pm pst)

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Discord (Student Run and Led): https://discord.gg/MSz5mUpe6N

This course investigates current debates within the United States about what dietary guidelines are optimal for maintaining human health and how changing conceptions of individual responsibility and political life are framing these debates.

First, we will look at how science is used to investigate the relationship between diet and the incidence of chronic disease in the United States since the 1970s. We rely on science to inform us about the pros and cons of different dietary approaches, but science itself is a messy process, in which differing paradigms compete within the context of contending social, economic, and political forces. Therefore, we will take a "science and society" approach to the study of competing dietary models and develop an understanding of science as a complex social process.

Second, the course will explore the emergence of a new kind of health consumer who seeks to manage their exposure to disease risk factors through diet. The use of new media, such as web blogs, will be explored as  technologies that disseminate dietary advice through the creation of web communities that examine critically the often conflicting and confusing findings that surface in the news stream on health and diet. These web communities put scientists, physicians, health professionals, and self-educating health consumers into dialogue with each other in ways that may be very new. In the search for wellness, health consumers are engaging in a form of science with themselves as singular experimental subjects. We will be looking at how this form of "anecdotal" evidence is being weighed in relation to the more traditional forms of scientific research referenced by the members of these Internet communities.

Third, we will explore how individuals are changing their relationship to what they eat through farm-to-table sourcing, reclaiming home cooking, self-provisioning, school food reform, and participation in social movements to build local and regional food systems as strategies to de-link from industrial agriculture. 

Fourth, we will explore contemporary food ideologies that are forming web-based communities in the search for personal wellness, environmental sustainability, and social justice. How do people define their moral and ethical selves through food? What attracts them to a specific food philosophy? How does this affect their relations with others? How do they use the evidence of their bodies to weigh the pros and cons of different nutritional ideologies? What are the possible dangers of "obsessing about food too much?" How are we as individuals compelled to take responsibility for our health in what is being critiqued in public debates as a "toxic food environment?"

The format of the class is lecture and discussion. You will be expected to come to class having completed the reading for that day and be prepared to participate in discussion.

Accessing Class Materials

The Class Schedule below is designed to make all of the assigned readings and films available to you one-click away. The shorter readings are linked as pdfs or hyperlinks to online resources. The reading assignment for the book listed below is linked to the UW Library Portal as an ebook.

• Janet Poppendieck, Free for All: Fixing School Food in America. (Available as an ebook through the UW Library.)

I will be adding links for Powerpoints and Zoom recordings as we go. 

Writing Assignments

There are two essay assignments written in response to a prompt provided by the instructor. The essay topics are constructed to encourage engagement with the course material while also incorporating a personal dimension. It is a hybrid form that requires citation of the readings as a form of scholarly writing but combined with personal narrative (therefore the first person pronoun is allowed). The second essay is to narrate an ethical meal that requires "hands on" activity on your part, so you may wish to familiarize yourself with the assignment early in the quarter to keep it in mind as you engage in meal preparation for yourself or others.

• An online research project on the "health blogosphere" (4 pages).
• Narrating an ethical meal (4 pages).

Discussion Groups

There are no sections for this class. The students will be divided into discussion groups of 10 or so students each. The membership of these groups will be constant throughout the quarter in order to encourage a sense of learning community.

Each student is required to write a discussion post that is 2-3 paragraphs long for each of 10 (out of a possible 17)  discussion boards. The post may be in response to the prompt provided by the instructor, or on some other aspect of the reading/film that you would like to comment on.

In either case, it is important for you to include a quotation from the reading or a specific moment of the film that you can include in your post as a jumping off point for your own commentary in order to get full credit. The discussion post format is intended to document your engagement with the reading/film but also it is a good practice for the kind of engagement I am looking for in the two paper assignments. Each post is worth 3 points and should be approximately 250-300 words in length. 

Once you have submitted your post, you will then be able to read and comment on a post submitted by one of the other students in your group. Each student is responsible for commenting on 10 (out of 17) discussion boards on a post written by another student. The comment needs to be a substantive paragraph in that it cannot simply be a thumbs up but needs to develop a discussion to get full credit. 

All discussion posts and responses for the week will be due by class time (2:30) on the day of the assignment. 

Credit Structure

30%     Health Blogosphere Research Project
30%     Ethical Meal Project
30%     Discussion posts (for 10 out of 17), 3 points each
10%     Responses to other student posts (for 10 out of 17), 1 point each
100%   Total 

Grades will be calculated as follows: The total number of points will be multiplied by 4 and divided by 100 to convert to the 4.0 scale. If there is a decimal remainder of .5 or higher, it will be rounded up.

Accessing Course Sessions Online

The City of Seattle has programs for low-cost, high-speed internet that cost around $10 a month, and also offers free and discounted computers and smartphones: 

https://www.seattle.gov/tech/services/internet-access/low-cost-home-internet-access-for-residents (Links to an external site.)

https://www.seattle.gov/tech/services/free-and-discounted-devices

The Logistics of Remote Learning.

• Each class will be recorded for students unable to attend at the regularly scheduled time.
• The class discussions will be live on Zoom during the regular classroom hours if we can make it work efficiently. 
• Students have the option of having their cameras off or on during discussion. If you have your video off, please display a photo to help create a sense of connection. If you don't want your video on all the time, consider activating it when you are speaking. But I don't want to discourage you from participating so feel free to keep it off if that is your preference.
• To keep talking over each other to a minimum, I suggest you use the raised hand signal to indicate you wish to contribute and it will signal to me to call on you.
• No recording is allowed without my permission to protect student privacy according to FERPA (Links to an external site.) (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act). Please do not share the access url and password for the Zoom sessions with those not enrolled for the class.
• Please observe the standard for constructive and respectful engagement in online discussions at all times.

Expectations
Success in this course will require keeping up with the reading and discussion posts in a timely manner and being responsible for lecture content.  Written work will be evaluated on the basis of demonstrating engagement with the course materials. If you are struggling with other time commitments that make keeping up with the course difficult, please let me know so we can work out a plan to help you complete this course successfully.

Class email list: I will use the email list to communicate with you about changes in assignments, scheduling, and other general classroom issues.  I expect you to have a university email address at which you can be reached by messages addressed to the list.  

Plagiarism Policy
Students are expected to do their own work. Plagiarism will not be tolerated and will result in zero credit for the assignment and possible further consequences in accordance with university policy and regulations. Information obtained from Internet sources must be acknowledged by citing the url (web address) and date of access, even if individual authors are not indicated. For further information on how plagiarism is defined by the university and university policies regarding plagiarism, see the following website: http://www.washington.edu/uaa/gateway/advising/help/academichonesty.php (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.