UVA Food-Related Courses

JTERM 2022: ENWR2559/Earn Certificate in Non-Violent Organizing from International Rights Organization 

J-Term 2022 Courses

Course Name/Code
Description
Non-Violent Organizing
ENWR 2559
Srdja Popovic and 

This course will enable you to consider how public narratives of democracy, human rights, and social justice are formed and circulated by advocates. To that end, the course will explore how public demonstrations, such as Occupy Wallstreet or the Arab Spring, brought together public writing and community organizing strategies to create political change. More than just a study of such events, however, this course will allow you to directly speak with many of the key organizers. The course will allow you to directly learn how these leaders moved from being students to being part of collective efforts which spoke to their values. Finally, you will take part in the very training in non-violent organizing that informed their efforts. To help make this work meaningful to your own goals, there will be several short assignments where you will reflect on a public issue of importance to you, then develop a plan to begin working on that very issue. As part of the course, students will complete this same training and earn a certificate from Popovic’s Center for Applied Non-Violent Actions and Strategies (canvasopedia.org).  Additionally, here is a link to a video Srdja Popovic sharing his hopes for the course.

 

Fall 2021 Courses

Course Name/Code
Description
Anthropology of Food
ANTH 3240
Dionisios Kavadias

This course approaches food from various social science perspectives, focusing on historically and culturally variable forms of food production, exchange, preparation and consumption as the means through which both individual and social bodies are constructed and reproduced. We examine food and the environment; food and colonialism; the globalization of food and food production; food and identities; and food and bodies.

Food and Culture
COLA 1500
Lisa Shutt

Food is much more than a biological need for human beings. People are meaning-makers, inseparable from the cultural frameworks in which they find themselves enmeshed. What we eat, the way we eat, and whether or not we prepare or provide food for others is every bit as much symbolic as it is rooted in biological survival. We create self identity, claim ethnic and national affiliation and affirm our maleness and femaleness with the foods we purchase, prepare, select or order from a menu. This course will help students to investigate the way the foods people eat—or don’t eat—hold meaning for people within multiple cultural contexts.

Nutrition
KINE 3400
Kara Anderson

Studies the basic principles of nutrition, including psychosocial-cultural considerations in dietary intake. Focuses on nutrient sources and actions, digestion, special population needs, weight control, food faddism, international problems, nutrition education, and nutrition-related disorders.

Culture and the Environment
ANTH 2160
Jim Igoe
This course explores anthropological understandings of culture and the environment, particularly with respect to the ecology of human perception, histories of colonialism and related inequalities, food production, consumerism, nature conservation, the Anthropocene concept, and pervasive environmental logics of globalizing capitalism.
Resources and the Environment
EVSC 1080
James Galloway
 

Explores the impact of people on the environment in the past and present with projections for the future. Addresses the phenomena and effects of food and energy production and industrial processes, including such topics as lead pollution, acid rain, the greenhouse effect, and the disposal of radioactive waste. Demonstrates how the environment works in the absence of humans and discusses how human use of resources perturbs the environment.

Writing about Food Justice
ENWR 1520 
Kate Stephenson

Requires off-grounds work with local non-profits. A single-semester option for meeting the first writing requirement-- intended to be taken during the first year of study-- approaches writing as a way of generating, representing, and reflecting on critical inquiry.

NGOs in the Policy Arena
LPPP 4725
Paul Martin

 

Since the 1960s, nonprofit, nongovernmental organizations have played an increasingly central role in the domestic public policy arena. This class explores their involvement in the interpretation and implementation of federal policy, the coordination of policy solutions, and advocacy for the policies and populations they serve. Policy areas we may consider include poverty and social welfare; the environment; and civil and political rights.
 

Spring 2021 Courses

Course Name/Code
Description
Arts and Cultures of the Slave South
AMST 2753
Louis Nelson
This interdisciplinary course covers the American South to the Civil War. While the course centers on the visual arts- architecture, material culture, decorative arts, painting, and sculpture- it is not designed as a regional history of art, but an exploration of the interrelations between history, material and visual cultures, foodways, music and literature in the formation of Southern identities.
Gender, Things, and Difference
AMST 3427
Jessica Sewell
This class explores how material culture, the physical stuff that is part of human life, is used to help to construct and express gendered and other forms of difference. We will look at how bodies and clothes shape our understanding of our own and others' identities, how we imbue objects with gender, how the food we cook and eat carries cultural meanings, and how the design of buildings and spaces structures gender.
Culture and the Environment
ANTH 2160
Joella Bitter
This course explores anthropological understandings of culture and the environment, particularly with respect to the ecology of human perception, histories of colonialism and related inequalities, food production, consumerism, nature conservation, the Anthropocene concept, and pervasive environmental logics of globalizing capitalism.
Synthetic Biology
BIOL 4770
Keith Kozminski
By applying the principles of engineering to biology, students will design molecules, viruses, and cells to solve global problems in public health, food security, manufacturing, information processing, and the environment, changing the traditional question of 'How do cells work?' to 'How can I get a cell to work for me?' Students will gain experience in writing internationally competitive research project proposals. Prerequisite: Instructor Permission
Introduction to Green Engineering 
CE 3050 
Andres Clarens
A hands-on overview in systems thinking as it relates to infrastructure and sustainability analysis. Students will learn quantitative tools to analyze complex socio-technical systems with a focus on water, energy, transportation, buildings, and food. Students will undertake an open-ended, team-based life cycle assessment project on a topic of their choice. Prerequisites: College Chemistry, and CE 2100 or Energy/Mass Balances.
African Environmental History
HIAF 3112 
James La Fleur
This course explores how Africans changed their interactions with the physical environments they inhabited and how the landscapes they helped create in turn shaped human history. Topics covered include the ancient agricultural revolution, health and disease in the era of slave trading, colonial-era mining and commodity farming, 20th-century wildlife conservation, and the emergent challenges of land ownership, disease, and climate change.
Nutrition
KINE 3400 
Sibylle Kranz
Studies the basic principles of nutrition, including psychosocial-cultural considerations in dietary intake. Focuses on nutrient sources and actions, digestion, special population needs, weight control, food faddism, international problems, nutrition education, and nutrition-related disorders.
Changing Behavior to Improve Diet and Physical Activity
KINE 6400
Sibylle Kranz
Despite routine recommendations on dietary intake and physical activity, the majority of individuals living in the US do not meet these guidelines. This course is focused on understanding human behavior and how dietary and activity behavior can be changed to improve public health. Special emphasis will be on factors affecting food selection and dietary intake as well as influencing consumer behavior.
American Food Governance
LAW 7169
Christopher Ripple
This course provides an introduction to the laws regulating food safety and food labeling and advertising in the United States. Topics to be addressed include federal regulation of adulterated and misbranded food products; enforcement and inspections; food recalls and crisis response; and state and local food regulation.
Built Environment & Health Impact
PHS 5620
Schaeffer Somers
How do sidewalks, block parties, food deserts, and transit systems impact our health? This course maps the intersections between architecture, urban planning, and public health that shape the built environment, health and well being of our local and global communities. Lectures and learning applications will present the evidence and its limits on topics such as food security, age-friendly cities, obesity, social equity and vulnerable population.
Public Health Law, Ethics, & Policy
PHS 7050
Ruth Bernheim
Required fall course for Community & Public Health track. Explores the legitimacy, design, and implementation of a variety of policies aiming to promote public health and reduce the social burden of disease and injury. Highlights the challenge posed by public health's population-based perspective to traditional individual-centered, autonomy-driven approaches to bioethics and constitutional law. Other themes center on conflicts between public health and public morality and the relationship between public health and social justice. Illustrative topics include mandatory immunization, screening and reporting of infectious diseases, prevention of lead poisoning, food safety, prevention of firearm injuries, airbags and seat belts, mandatory drug testing, syringe exchange programs, tobacco regulation, and restrictions on alcohol and tobacco advertising. May be open to undergraduates as PHS 5050 with instructor permission. Prerequisites:  Instructor permission.

 

Study Abroad Courses

Course Name/Code
Description
Sustainable Practices in Denmark & Sweden
COMM 4569
Kerrie Carfagno & Brad Brown
“Sustainability” implies both environmental and societal goals and actions. Some global issues are being addressed through multinational cooperation, but governments, businesses, and civil society are tackling many issues locally.  This course, in Denmark in May, examines programs being undertaken by local leaders to address problems in their communities. Denmark is a world leader in wind turbine technology, but also has a very competitive agricultural sector of its economy. Danes are very conscious of sustainable industries and reducing their carbon footprints. Our days will be a blend of discussions and guest lectures, with many field trips to progressive corporations, social enterprises, NGO offices, historic sites, etc.  Much of our transportation in Copenhagen will be by bicycle, so confidence in riding a bike is important
Climate Change: The Politics of Food, Water, and Energy (Bolivia, Morocco, and San Francisco)
Program by SIT/World Learning    
SIT/Learning
Study the social impacts of climate change through the political economy of food, water, and energy in some of the world's most productive and vulnerable landscapes.
Food Systems: Agriculture, Sustainability and Justice (California and Ecuador, or California, Ecuador, Malawi, and Italy)
Program by SIT/World Learning
Study how the dynamics of food production, distribution, and provisioning are affected by population growth, rapid urbanization, and globalization, and which responses offer the most promise for sustainable food futures at local, national, and global levels
Switzerland: Geneva: Food Security and Nutrition
Program by SIT/World Learning
 
No Description.
UVA in Vietnam: An Ecological-Economic Exploration
LPPS 5500
Spencer Phillips & Ngo Thi Minh Huong
Applied Policy Field Study looks at one of the world’s most rapidly growing countries through the lens of ecological economics. We will focus on whether and how relationships between human and natural systems produce outcomes that are sustainable, just, and efficient. Through field visits, experiential learning/citizen science, and interaction with policy, development and environmental practitioners, students will see these relationships in all their complexity and use problem-based learning to gain skills in evidence-based policy analysis
UVA Architecture: Morocco: Field Studies in Urbanization and Sustainable Development
PLAN 5500
Ellen Bassett & Fatmah Behbehani

This program is purposefully designed to fully engage students in contemporary sustainable development efforts taken in Morocco. Participants will engage with different actors involved in Morocco’s sustainable development initiatives including NGO employees, policy makers, researchers, field specialists, entrepreneurs and students. 

Topics include urban development projects (new towns and affordable housing developments), renewable energy plants, the Nigeria-Morocco gas pipeline project, the 2016 sustainable tourism charter, cultural preservation efforts, social entrepreneurism and other projects that demonstrate Morocco’s commitment to sustainable development. Site visits and meetings with local professionals will be supported by readings, assignments, and discussions lead by co-instructors (UVA faculty), local subject matter experts and instructors at a local cooperating institution. 

Visits are planned with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and other development agencies, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), historic preservation organizations, and more.

UVA in Guatemala: Public Health, Engineering and the Environment: An Interdisciplinary Exploration of Community Development
STS 3500, STS 5500, GSGS 3120, or ECSC 3559
Kent Wayland, Eric Anderson, Aaron Mills, Jessica Ohana González, and David R. Burt
Discussion of major topics in public health, including chronic diseases, such as child and adult obesity, diabetes, hypertension, cancer, cardiovascular disease, muscle and bone diseases, and mental illness. There is a strong emphasis on fitness, nutrition, and other lifestyle choices to modify disease risk. Eating disorders and athlete medical issues are also discussed
UVA in Morocco: Participatory Development in Practice
GSGS 3250
Yossef Ben-Meir & Ingrid Hakala

This 8-week hybrid internship-study abroad program offers the unique opportunity to pair academic learning about global approaches to community development with an actual experience of work in this professional field, all within the fascinating national context of Morocco. In their internships with the High Atlas Foundation (HAF) students will have the chance to develop first-hand understandings of the participatory approach to development by cultivating skills (as facilitators and participants) in its methods, within both the classroom and community settings, and by documenting its practice.

In the course of the program, students will be exposed to a range of themes relating to development through the work of the HAF, including women's empowerment, conflict management, environmental conservation, cooperative-driven entrepreneurism, migration, and more. This opportunity is particularly relevant for, but not limited to, students interested in environments and sustainability, women’s studies, global culture and commerce, security and justice, public health, and development studies.