FYE 101 - Food for Thought: Write What You Know About Food

FOOD FOR THOUGHT: THE CULTURE, LANGUAGE AND SUSTAINABILITY OF WHAT WE EAT: This FYE will center around the topic of food–specifically the building and execution of rituals with/around food, writing about food, examination how society influences the food that we eat, and how our food choices affect the environment. This FYE will be taught in four sections led respectively by a biologist, an English professor and poet, a sociologist, and a Religion professor and rabbi. Sometimes we will meet together, sometimes separately in sections.

WRITE WHAT YOU KNOW ABOUT FOOD: Our relationship with food is similar to our relationship with writing. Eating is often an intimate moment that we share with friends or we keep to ourselves. A delicious meal is an experience, possibly even transporting us beyond language. In a similar fashion, creative writing often occurs in private, and is expressive of that privacy. Inspiration can take the writer even beyond language, as they try to find the language to keep up with their thinking. In this portion of the FYE, students will explore the language they use to describe food. How can expressive writing connect students with a more personal understanding of a subject? How is describing food different from describing a good meal? How does sharing a meal change how someone would write about that meal? And, finally, how does a varied and diverse knowledge about food, change what someone writes on the subject?

Credits 1

Compass Attributes
First Year Experience