Food Matters: U R What U Eat
Never before has there been as much interest in how we eat, where our food comes from, and how it affects us. From critiques of factory farming, to the diet industry, to the popularity of cooking shows and “ethnic” foods, we are fascinated by the problem of how to choose what to eat and what that choice means. The goal of this Common Hour will be to explore cross-disciplinary intersections of food production and consumption, with an eye toward showing the multiple perspectives necessary for the study of how we eat, and the consequences of that choice.
Mondays at noon in the Learning Commons - John Stewart Memorial Library
Wilson College, Chambersburg, PA
Fall Semester Events:
September 17
Sancho’s Dinner, or, Why Study Food? - Wendell P. Smith
In this presentation I will use two points of departure for an introduction to some of the common themes of the interdisciplinary study of food we will be exploring in this year’s Common Hour.
September 24
Food Waste at Wilson College: Closing a Loop - Christine Mayer
Since 2005, Wilson College has been composting its food waste. Come learn more about this program that keeps us consistently ranked as a top school in the sustainability rankings.
October 1
Eat Well—Be Well - Dan Maertz and Mary Beth Williams
Students, faculty and staff members all eat together on a daily basis in Jensen Dining Hall. This talk will focus on how decisions are made in the dining hall and library café and how all community members can be a part of these important processes.
October 15
The Civic Governance of Food Distribution: Lessons from the Public Market - Linda Aleci
What lessons can we find in the life and death—and rebirth—of publicly owned and operated markets, and the history of civic efforts to govern food distribution?
October 22
Dining with the Gods in Ancient Greece - Bonnie Rock-McCutcheon
This talk will explore the way that food was used in religious festivals, animal sacrifice, and communal religious meals to bridge the gap between humans and gods in ancient Greece.
October 29
Eating to Live, Living to Tell: Foundational Food in the Latina Testimonial Text - Amanda Eaton McMenamin
In a context of the systematic oppression and genocide of Menchu's people, in which Latina women have often struggled to eat in order to live on a sustenance of maize—a highly symbolic sign of indigenous culture— food connects these women and their worlds. In living, or surviving, they live to tell their stories and share in the dialogic testimonio, just as food is shared and consumed in communal fashion.
November 5
Eating While Black: Food Shaming and Food Policing in Black Communities - Psyche Williams-Forson
Eating while Black: Food Shaming and Food Policing in Black Communities is centrally concerned with how the current changing food world affects and is affected by African American people.
November 12
Hunger and Food Insecurity: Here, There, and Everywhere - Abby McElhiney, Julie Raulli, and Rev. Derek Wadlington
We often think of hunger as a problem in poorer countries in the world, but many people in the United States cannot feed themselves and their family on a daily basis. This panel will discuss hunger and food insecurity as systemic problems, and look at what is being done in our community to address and eradicate them.
Past Events:
November 6
Is Anxiety the Root of All Our Ills? - Lee Barrett
(Listen here)
Anxiety and the Travail of Contemporary Culture - Lee Barrett
(Listen here)