Monday, January 26, 2015

making food, making media (spring 2015)

ENVA 390: Making Food, Making Media
Education 307, Tues & Thurs 4:35 – 6:20 pm

Professor David Silver
Office/hours: Kalmanavitz 141, Tues & Thurs 2 – 3:00 pm and by appointment
Contact: dmsilver [ at ] usfca [ dot ] edu

Making Food, Making Media is an Environmental Studies special topics storytelling-production class focused on food and media. Through readings, viewings, and discussions, we will explore different meanings of food, the history and current landscape of televised cooking shows, and recent developments in just food systems. Through hands-on workshops, we will learn basic cooking and baking skills in St Cyprian’s kitchen and tend an organic veggie plot in the USF Garden. And throughout the semester, through crafts, media, and social media, we will create and share stories about sustainable agriculture, just food, and seasonal cooking.

 
Required Text
Novella Carpenter, Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer (Penguin Books, 2010).

All other readings will be made available for free – online, outside my office, or via Gleeson Library. Until notified otherwise, students are required to print out online readings and bring to class for discussion.

Course Schedule
Tuesday, 1/27: Introductions

Thursday, 1/29: “What I eat and drink in a day” homework assignment – presented and discussed in class.

Tuesday, 2/3: Read: Sandra Cate, “‘Breaking Bread with a Spread’ in a San Francisco County Jail,” Gastronomica: The Journal of Critical Food Studies (Summer 2008), pp. 17-24.

Thursday, 2/5: Gardening workshop. Class meets in the USF Garden to plant our garden plot.

Tuesday, 2/10: Read: Kathleen Collins, “Julia Child and Revolution in the Kitchen,” from Watching What We Eat: The Evolution of Television Cooking Shows (Continuum, 2009): 71-100.

Thursday, 2/12: Demo Day 1

Tuesday, 2/17: Read: Michael Pollan, “Out of the Kitchen, Onto the Couch,” New York Times Magazine (August 2, 2009); and Andrew Chan, “‘La grande bouffe’: Cooking Shows as Pornography,” Gastronomica (Fall 2003): pp. 47-53.

Thursday, 2/19: Cooking workshop I. Class meets in the kitchen at St Cyprian’s Church (at the corner of Turk & Lyon).

Tuesday, 2/24: Jane Kramer, “Good Greens: Vegetarian cookbooks for carnivores,” The New Yorker (April 14, 2014): pp. 79-83; and Christine Byrne, “27 Diagrams That Make Cooking So Much Easier,” BuzzFeed (January 17, 2015).

Thursday, 2/26: Recipe workshop.

Tuesday, 3/3: Read: Emily Matchar, “Cupcake Feminists, Hipster Jam Canners, and ‘Femivores’: The Rise of the DIY Food Culture,” from Homeward Bound: Why Women Are Embracing the New Domesticity (Simon & Schuster, 2013): pp. 95-119.

Thursday, 3/5: Demo Day 2

Tuesday: 3/10: Read: Novella Carpenter, “Turkey,” from Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer (Penguin Books, 2010): pp. 1-98.

Thursday, 3/12: Baking workshop. Guest baker: Samantha Blackburn, head baker at Angelina's Café, San Francisco. Class meets at St Cyprian’s kitchen.

SPRING BREAK (March 16-20)

Tuesday, 3/24: Read: Novella Carpenter, “Rabbit,” from Farm City, pp. 99-184

Thursday, 3/26: Seed Library workshop. Guests: Debbie Benrubi and Carol Spector, Gleeson Library. Class meets at the USF Seed Library inside Gleeson.

Tuesday, 3/31: Read: Novella Carpenter, “Pig,” from Farm City, pp. 185-269.

Thursday, 4/2: No class. Easter break.

Tuesday, 4/7: Read: Rebecca Solnit, “RevolutionaryPlots: Urban agriculture is producing a lot more than food,” Orion Magazine (July/August 2012); and watch: Ron Finley, “A guerilla gardener in South Central LA,” TED Talk (February 2013).

Thursday, 4/9: Homesteading workshop. Guest: Melinda Stone, Media Studies, Environmental Studies, Film, and Urban Ag, USF.

Tuesday, 4/14: Read: Selections from Sally K. Fairfax, Louise Nelson Dyble, Greig Tor Guthey, Lauren Gwin, Monica Moore, and Jennifer Sokolove, California Cuisine and Just Food (MIT Press, 2012).

Thursday, 4/16: Cooking workshop II. Class meets at St Cyprian’s kitchen.

Tuesday, 4/21: Read: Burkhard Bilger, “Nature’s Spoils: The underground food movement ferments revolution,” The New Yorker (November 22, 2010): pp. 104-115; and Adrien Schless-Meier, “This urban farmer is growing jobs in her community: Doria Robinson is transforming an empty lot in North Richmond, California,” Civil Eats (January 19, 2015).

Thursday, 4/23: Demo Day 4

Tuesday, 4/28: Watch: Agnès Varda, The Gleaners and I (2000): 82 mins; and read: Dianne Jacob, “The Fine Art of Feeding the Hungry,” Gastronomica (Fall 2003): pp. 14-20.

Thursday, 4/30: Professional workshop: Getting serious about your work. Guest: Vivian Truong, founder, Fiber Florist.

Tuesday, 5/5: Read: Fallen Fruit, “Take Back the Fruit: Public Space and Community Activism,” from Food, edited by John Knechtel, pp. 94-103; and Kim Severson, “Neighbor, Can You Spare A Plum?New York Times, June 10, 2009.

Thursday, 5/7: aeiou workshop

Tuesday, 5/12: Field trip to be determined.

Thursday, 5/14: Demo Day 5

Please note: Although our class time runs from 4:35 – 6:20 pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays, you are highly encouraged to attend the free community dinners on the first Thursday of each month (February 2; March 5; and April 2) at 6 pm.

There is no final exam in this class.

Grading
15%  Homework, in-class assignments, and quizzes
10%  Class participation
15%  Demo Day 1
15%  Demo Day 2
15%  Demo Day 3
15%  Demo Day 4
15%  Demo Day 5

Attendance Policy
Missing class, or attending class unprepared, will significantly affect your final grade. If you do miss class, contact a classmate to find out what we discussed in class and ask to borrow her or his notes. Then, do the same with a second classmate. After doing this, if you still have questions about missed material, visit me during office hours or email me.

Rules
1. No late work accepted.
2. In class, during workshops, and on field trips, no drinking out of non-reusable containers.

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